Starting in 2026, the premium tax credit ends at 400% of the federal poverty level, which is $62,600 for a household of one. A dollar under that, a 64-year-old pays $6,235 a year toward the benchmark plan and the credit covers the rest. A dollar over, and they pay the full premium.
How much that dollar costs depends mostly on where they live: $24,581 in West Virginia, but $4,707 in New Hampshire, for the same income, the same rules and the same age.
The benchmark is the second-lowest-cost silver plan, which is what the credit is measured against, for a single non-smoker in each rating area. States are sorted by how much the cliff costs.
| State | Rating areas | Benchmark / month | Credit lost / year |
|---|---|---|---|
| West Virginia | 11 | $2,217–$2,757 (median $2,568) | $24,581 |
| Wyoming | 3 | $2,412–$2,592 (median $2,519) | $23,998 |
| Alaska | 3 | $2,356–$2,478 (median $2,407) | $22,645 |
| Arkansas | 7 | $1,817 | $15,567 |
| Nebraska | 4 | $1,507–$1,959 (median $1,689) | $14,033 |
| Tennessee | 8 | $1,536–$1,863 (median $1,661) | $13,694 |
| Kansas | 7 | $1,360–$1,769 (median $1,651) | $13,572 |
| Florida | 67 | $1,342–$2,999 (median $1,641) | $13,456 |
| Delaware | 1 | $1,624 | $13,250 |
| Louisiana | 8 | $1,319–$1,724 (median $1,607) | $13,047 |
| Arizona | 7 | $1,054–$2,163 (median $1,569) | $12,596 |
| Texas | 27 | $1,323–$2,171 (median $1,568) | $12,578 |
| Missouri | 10 | $1,248–$1,856 (median $1,563) | $12,524 |
| North Carolina | 16 | $1,281–$1,983 (median $1,514) | $11,932 |
| Mississippi | 6 | $1,414–$1,607 (median $1,506) | $11,835 |
| Utah | 6 | $1,163–$1,836 (median $1,495) | $11,706 |
| Wisconsin | 16 | $1,236–$1,719 (median $1,472) | $11,430 |
| Montana | 4 | $1,169–$1,605 (median $1,417) | $10,771 |
| Oklahoma | 5 | $1,325–$1,605 (median $1,336) | $9,801 |
| South Carolina | 46 | $1,082–$1,560 (median $1,306) | $9,436 |
| Hawaii | 1 | $1,275 | $9,063 |
| South Dakota | 4 | $1,207–$1,817 (median $1,259) | $8,869 |
| Oregon | 7 | $1,198–$1,419 (median $1,257) | $8,849 |
| Ohio | 17 | $1,134–$1,390 (median $1,233) | $8,559 |
| North Dakota | 4 | $1,071–$1,417 (median $1,171) | $7,818 |
| Michigan | 16 | $911–$2,136 (median $1,131) | $7,332 |
| Iowa | 7 | $1,063–$1,217 (median $1,121) | $7,213 |
| Indiana | 17 | $1,047–$1,211 (median $1,116) | $7,162 |
| Alabama | 13 | $876–$1,011 (median $951) | $5,176 |
| New Hampshire | 1 | $912 | $4,707 |
The table covers one household size at one age, sitting exactly at the cliff. A real plan is usually somewhere near it, and a Roth conversion or a capital gain decides which side you land on. The planner runs this with your income, your state and your assumptions, and shows you which year it happens.
Run it with your numbersSecond-lowest-cost silver plan, individual non-tobacco rate, per rating area; the state figures are the low, median and high across that state's rating areas.
Computed from the CMS Health Insurance Exchange Public Use Files (Rate PUF and Plan Attributes PUF), plan year 2026. Not published by CMS and not CMS data — CMS's user agreement asks that altered data not be presented as theirs.
Not every state is here. State-Based Exchanges that do not use the federal platform — including California, New York, Massachusetts, Washington, Colorado and New Jersey — publish no data here.
CMS updates the plan-year 2026 files until open enrollment, and they may differ from HealthCare.gov.
Plan year 2026. Rebuilt from source with scripts/build_slcsp.py.
This is a projection based on stated assumptions. It is not financial or tax advice.