Medi-Cal Income Limits in 2026: MAGI, Aged and Disabled, and Share of Cost

There is no single Medi-Cal income limit for 2026. The number that applies to you depends entirely on which Medi-Cal program you are applying under: a working-age adult applying through the Affordable Care Act expansion faces a different test than a senior applying for nursing home coverage, and the two tests use different math entirely.

I practice trust and estate planning in Ventura, Santa Barbara, and Los Angeles Counties, and the question I hear most often is some version of “am I over the income limit?” The honest answer is almost always “which limit?” Here is the rule of thumb I give clients: Medi-Cal has several front doors, and the income limit depends on which door you are walking through. Walk through the wrong door and you will either think you are ineligible when you are not, or think you qualify when you actually owe a share of cost. This page walks through each door in plain English, then gives the current 2026 figures for each one, with the statute and agency source behind every number.

Which Medi-Cal Program Applies to You?

Before any number matters, figure out which category you fall into. In broad terms:

• MAGI Medi-Cal covers most adults under 65 without a disability determination, using Modified Adjusted Gross Income rules borrowed from ACA marketplace insurance. This is the expansion population, and it uses an annual income test set at 138% of the federal poverty level (FPL).
• The Aged and Disabled Federal Poverty Level (A&D FPL) program covers Medi-Cal applicants who are 65 or older, or blind or disabled, whose income falls at or under a set monthly threshold. There is no share of cost in this program if you qualify under it.
• Medically needy, share-of-cost Medi-Cal covers aged, blind, or disabled applicants whose income is too high for the A&D FPL program. Instead of being turned away, they are approved with a monthly “share of cost,” essentially a deductible, calculated against a maintenance need level.
• Long-term care Medi-Cal, the program that pays for a nursing facility, does not use a strict income cap at all. It uses a share-of-cost calculation instead, with a small personal needs allowance carved out for the applicant and, if there is a spouse still living at home, a minimum income allowance protected for that spouse.

These four categories use different income-counting rules, different FPL years, and different agency sources. Do not average them, and do not assume the figure that applies to your neighbor’s Medi-Cal application applies to yours.

Two applicants with identical monthly income can land in completely different places on this chart depending on age, disability status, and whether they are living at home or in a facility. That is the reason a single “Medi-Cal income limit” headline is almost always incomplete, and why the sections below separate each program’s math instead of blending them into one number.

How Is Income Counted for Medi-Cal?

Before applying any of the limits below, it helps to know what “income” means in each system, since MAGI and non-MAGI programs count it differently.

• MAGI programs generally count taxable income the way it would appear on a federal tax return: wages, self-employment income, most retirement account distributions, Social Security benefits (with adjustments), and investment income, using rules borrowed from ACA marketplace eligibility.
• Non-MAGI programs, which cover the Aged and Disabled FPL program, the medically needy program, and long-term care Medi-Cal, use an older, more granular counting method that looks at each income source individually, applies specific disregards, and then compares the remainder to the applicable limit or MNIL.

The practical takeaway: do not run the same “gross monthly income” number through both a MAGI calculator and a non-MAGI share-of-cost worksheet and expect the same answer. They are not the same math, even when the underlying income is identical.

MAGI Medi-Cal Income Limits for 2026 (138% FPL)

MAGI Medi-Cal uses an annual income limit set at 138% of the federal poverty level. This is where the numbers get genuinely confusing, because two different sets of figures are both defensible right now, depending on which FPL year they are measured against.

The Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) publishes an eligibility chart that, as of July 2026, still reflects the 2025 federal poverty guidelines. Separately, the federal Department of Health and Human Services published updated 2026 poverty guidelines on January 15, 2026, and the 138% figures computed from those updated guidelines are higher. Both figures are accurate for what they represent; they are simply anchored to different FPL years.

Source for the first table: DHCS Medi-Cal eligibility chart. Source for the second table: the 2026 HHS poverty guidelines, published January 15, 2026, computed at 138%, per the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) poverty guidelines. If your application is being evaluated in 2026, ask your county eligibility worker which chart is currently in use; do not assume the two figures interchange.

Aged and Disabled FPL Program Income Limits for 2026

If you are 65 or older, or blind or disabled, you do not use the MAGI test at all. You are evaluated instead under California’s non-MAGI rules, and the most favorable of those is the Aged and Disabled FPL program: qualify under this program’s monthly limit and there is no share of cost.

Non-MAGI income limits update every April 1, not January 1, which is a separate cycle from both the MAGI chart above and the calendar year. Note that the individual figure here, $1,836 per month, happens to land close to the 2026-FPL-computed MAGI figure for a household of one, but they are different programs measured on different schedules; treat the closeness as coincidence, not equivalence.

Medically Needy, Share-of-Cost Medi-Cal for 2026

If your income is above the Aged and Disabled FPL limit, you are not automatically disqualified. California’s medically needy program, under Welfare and Institutions Code § 14005.12, approves aged, blind, and disabled applicants with higher income, but requires them to pay a monthly “share of cost” before Medi-Cal coverage begins, similar to an insurance deductible that resets each month.

The share of cost formula is straightforward once you see it worked through:

Share of cost = countable monthly income − maintenance need level (MNIL)

Worked example. Suppose an individual applicant has $1,800 per month in Social Security and a small pension, all of it countable income. Subtract the $600 individual MNIL: $1,800 − $600 = $1,200. That applicant’s share of cost is $1,200 per month. Medi-Cal pays medical and long-term care costs above that $1,200, but the applicant is responsible for the first $1,200 of covered charges each month, the same way a deductible works, before Medi-Cal coverage picks up the balance.

Share of cost is often the least understood part of Medi-Cal, because a “share of cost” approval can look, on paper, like a denial. It is not. It means coverage exists, with a monthly threshold attached.

Long-Term Care Medi-Cal: No Strict Income Cap

Nursing home Medi-Cal, sometimes called long-term care Medi-Cal, does not use a hard income ceiling the way the programs above do. Instead, it runs on the same share-of-cost mechanics, applied to the resident’s income, with two protections built in:

• Personal needs allowance: $35 per month, under Welfare and Institutions Code § 14005.12(c)(1). This is the amount the resident is allowed to keep from their own income for personal expenses; the rest of their income (after allowances) generally goes toward their share of cost.
• Minimum Monthly Maintenance Needs Allowance (MMMNA): $4,067 per month, per DHCS All County Welfare Directors Letter (ACWDL) 26-02. If the applicant is married and the community spouse (the spouse remaining at home) has income below this amount, income can be diverted from the institutionalized spouse to bring the community spouse up to the MMMNA.

In practice, this means a nursing home resident with substantial monthly income is not disqualified on income alone; nearly all of that income above the $35 allowance (and above what is diverted to a community spouse) simply becomes the resident’s monthly share of cost, owed to the facility, with Medi-Cal covering the balance of the cost of care.

Income Is Only Half the Picture: Assets Matter Too

Every income limit above assumes the applicant has already cleared, or is separately working through, California’s Medi-Cal asset test. The two tests are independent: passing the income limit for your category does not mean you qualify if your countable assets exceed the limit, and vice versa.

California reinstated its asset limit effective January 1, 2026, at $130,000 for an individual applicant and $195,000 for a married couple, under Assembly Bill 116. That limit is scheduled to drop sharply on July 1, 2027. I cover the asset side, including what counts, what is exempt, and how the 2027 change affects planning done today, on a companion page: Medi-Cal asset limits in California. If you are evaluating eligibility for yourself or a parent, read both pages together. Passing the income test in isolation tells you nothing about whether the assets also clear.

What Should You Do With These Numbers?

1. Identify your category first. Under 65 and not disabled points to MAGI. 65 or older, or blind or disabled, points to the A&D FPL program or the medically needy program. Needing nursing facility care points to long-term care Medi-Cal. Getting this step wrong is what causes most of the confusion I see; everything downstream depends on picking the right column.
2. Compare your countable income against the correct table above, not the first number you find online. If you are in the MAGI category, confirm which FPL year the county is currently using for your application, since the DHCS chart and the 2026-computed figures are both circulating right now.
3. If you land in share-of-cost territory, calculate the share of cost itself using the MNIL formula, rather than assuming a high income disqualifies you entirely. A share-of-cost approval is still an approval, and the monthly amount owed is often smaller than people expect once the MNIL is subtracted.
4. If nursing facility care is involved, calculate the personal needs allowance and MMMNA before assuming the resident’s income is a barrier. Between the $35 personal needs allowance and any amount diverted to a community spouse under the MMMNA, most of the remaining income becomes a manageable monthly share of cost rather than a disqualifying factor.
5. Check the asset side in parallel using the current 2026 asset limits, since both tests must be satisfied. Passing the income test for your category tells you nothing about whether your countable assets also clear.
6. Revisit both tests at renewal, since the A&D FPL and MMMNA figures update every April 1, and the asset limit itself is scheduled to change again on July 1, 2027. A household that qualifies comfortably today should not assume the same numbers will apply at the next annual redetermination.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Medi-Cal income limit for 2026?

It depends on the program. MAGI Medi-Cal uses 138% of the federal poverty level, shown per the DHCS chart as of July 2026 at $21,597 (household of 1) and $29,187 (household of 2) annually, or, computed on the 2026 federal poverty guidelines, $22,025 ($1,836/month) and $29,863 ($2,489/month). The Aged and Disabled FPL program uses $1,836/month individual and $2,490/month couple, effective April 1, 2026. The medically needy program uses a $600/$934 monthly maintenance need level against which a share of cost is calculated. Medi-Cal has several front doors, and the income limit depends on which door you are walking through.

Is there an income limit for nursing home Medi-Cal?

Not a strict cap. Long-term care Medi-Cal uses a share-of-cost calculation instead of a hard income ceiling. The resident keeps a $35 monthly personal needs allowance under § 14005.12(c)(1), a community spouse can be protected up to the $4,067 Minimum Monthly Maintenance Needs Allowance under ACWDL 26-02, and income above those protections generally becomes the resident’s monthly share of cost owed toward the cost of care.

What is a share of cost?

A share of cost is the amount of countable monthly income above a program’s maintenance need level (MNIL) that a Medi-Cal beneficiary must pay toward their own medical or long-term care costs before Medi-Cal coverage picks up the rest, similar to a monthly deductible. The formula is share of cost equals countable monthly income minus the MNIL. For 2026, the MNIL is $600 for an individual and $934 for a couple.

Medi-Cal income and eligibility rules change, and county eligibility workers apply the current chart in effect at the time your application or renewal is processed. This page is attorney-authored general information as of the date above, not legal advice for your specific situation. Verify current figures with the Department of Health Care Services or your county eligibility worker before relying on any number here for a pending application.

Related reading: Medi-Cal asset limits in California for 2026, how a living trust interacts with Medi-Cal planning, Medi-Cal estate recovery under AB 116, and incapacity planning in California.

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