The short answer
The 2026 Medicare Savings Program monthly income limits: QMB 1,350 dollars individual, SLMB 1,616, QI 1,816, QDWI 5,405, with couple limits higher and resources capped at 9,950 dollars for the first three. Your state decides which program applies, and its own math can be more generous.
Plan year 2026. Every figure on this page is the 2026 value, read from Medicare.gov's Medicare Savings Programs page on August 7, 2026. The page states these limits go up each year, and this page tracks the current plan year only.
Say your income falls between two of these programs. You do not choose which one you get. Your state places you, and a few dollars decides it.
What are QMB, SLMB, QI and QDWI?
QMB, SLMB, QI and QDWI are the four Medicare Savings Programs: state-run help paying Medicare premiums and, in QMB's case, most other Medicare costs. Call them the Three Plus One: three programs form one income ladder with shared resource limits, and QDWI stands apart for working people with disabilities.
The names unpack to Qualified Medicare Beneficiary, Specified Low-Income Medicare Beneficiary, Qualifying Individual, and Qualified Disabled and Working Individual.
The Three Plus One is a sorting of the government's own 2026 tables. QMB, SLMB and QI share one pair of resource limits and climb one income ladder, while QDWI's income limit runs far higher and its resource limit far lower than the other three. The tables are the government's. The sorting and the naming are ours.
What are the income limits?
The 2026 monthly income limits climb by program, per Medicare.gov's tables: QMB at 1,350 dollars individual (1,824 for a couple), SLMB at 1,616 (2,184), QI at 1,816 (2,455), and QDWI at 5,405 (7,299). The limits are monthly figures, and they go up each year.
Two hedges ride with the tables, both the government's. Income limits run slightly higher in Alaska and Hawaii, with the exact figures unstated on the page. And you may still qualify in your state above the federal limits, because some states do not count certain types or specific amounts of income or resources.
The page's own framing is also hedged: in most cases, income and resources must be below the limits. The deciding arithmetic belongs to the state, two sections down.
What does each program pay for?
Each program pays a different slice: QMB pays Part A premiums for those without premium-free Part A, plus Part B premiums, deductibles, coinsurance and copayments; SLMB and QI pay Part B premiums; QDWI pays Part A premiums only. All but QDWI also carry Extra Help for drugs.
QMB's slice comes with teeth: Medicare providers are not allowed to bill QMB enrollees for covered services and items, including deductibles, coinsurance, and copayments, though a small Medicaid copayment may apply.
Four programs sit under one name and they do different jobs.
| Program | What it pays | The headline |
|---|---|---|
| QMB | Part A and Part B premiums, and cost sharing | Providers may not bill you |
| SLMB | Part B premiums only | Narrower, higher income limit |
| QI | Part B premiums only | Funded yearly, first come |
| QDWI | Part A premiums for certain working people | The narrowest of the four |
The first row is the strongest protection in this article, and it is the one people do not know they have.
SLMB and QI both require holding Part A and Part B. QI adds its own rules: you must apply every year, states approve first-come, first-served with priority to prior-year QI enrollees, and QI is only for people not qualifying for other Medicaid coverage.
QDWI serves a precise situation: a person with a disability who is working and lost Social Security disability benefits and premium-free Part A by returning to work.
The Extra Help line is the page's own placement: it appears under QMB, SLMB and QI, and not under QDWI.
What are the Medicare Savings Program asset limits?
The Medicare Savings Program resource limits for 2026 sit at 9,950 dollars for an individual and 14,910 for a couple across QMB, SLMB and QI, while QDWI runs lower, at 4,000 and 6,000 dollars. What counts as a resource is a question the state application answers.
The state hedge applies to resources as much as income: some states do not count certain types or specific amounts, which is one of the two reasons Medicare.gov tells people to apply even when the federal numbers look disqualifying.
The other reason is structural: the state, not the table, determines which program you qualify for.
Which one do I qualify for?
Which program you qualify for is your state's determination, not a self-diagnosis: Medicare.gov's instruction is to apply through your state, which decides the program, and to apply even if you do not think you qualify. The federal tables are the map; the state holds the ruling.
Self-rejection is the named failure mode. A reader whose income sits above a federal row can still qualify where state rules do not count certain income, and only the application finds out.
The one program with entry conditions beyond the numbers is QI: it is only for people who do not qualify for other Medicaid coverage or benefits, though the page notes another Medicare Savings Program may still fit.
How the application actually runs, and what the state decides, is the companion applying article.
Can I have one plus Extra Help?
A Medicare Savings Program and Extra Help stack by design: QMB, SLMB and QI each bring Extra Help with prescription drugs, at no more than 12.65 dollars in 2026 per covered drug, and getting state help with Part B premiums qualifies you for Extra Help automatically.
The stacking runs both directions. The Extra Help application itself can start a Medicare Savings Program application, with Social Security sending information to your state unless you decline on the form.
QMB carries one more practical layer: show both your Medicare card and your Medicaid or QMB card at each visit, and with Original Medicare, a Medicare Summary Notice also shows QMB status. The Extra Help program's own limits and schedule fill the companion Savings articles.
What changed this year
Every income and resource limit on this page is a 2026 plan year value. These limits are re-set each year and are tied to figures that move annually, so a household that did not qualify last year is not automatically outside the program this year.
These limits are re-set for each year and they are tied to figures that move annually, so a household that did not qualify last year is not automatically outside this year. The figures above are the current ones.
This publication has not found published 2025 limits, so no change from last year is claimed here.
Two things on this page do not move with the year. Alaska and Hawaii use higher limits than the rest of the country, and a state may let you qualify with income or resources above the federal figures. Both are reasons the number above is a starting point rather than a verdict.
QMB carries a protection the other two do not, and it is the strongest rule in this article.
Under QMB, Medicare providers are not allowed to bill you for covered services and items, including deductibles, coinsurance and copayments. A small Medicaid copayment can still apply.
If you are billed anyway, tell the provider or the debt collector that you are in QMB and cannot be charged. Bills you have already paid carry a refund right through your State Medicaid office.
The practical habit that prevents most of it: show both your Medicare card and your Medicaid or QMB card at every visit.
What this means for you
The four programs are a 2026 fact grid: four income ladders, two resource tiers, three payment scopes, one instruction repeated under every table: apply through your state, even if the federal numbers look out of reach. The state's arithmetic is the one that counts, and it can be kinder.
The applying article covers the state route. The changes article covers what happens when income moves. And the Extra Help cluster holds the drug-cost half of the stack.
FAQ
What does QMB protect me from being billed?
Everything Medicare covers, in Medicare.gov's own words: Medicare providers are not allowed to bill QMB enrollees for services and items Medicare covers, including deductibles, coinsurance, and copayments, with a small Medicaid copayment possible where one applies.
The page's drawer adds the enforcement steps. If a bill arrives, tell the provider or debt collector you are in QMB and cannot be charged. If you already paid, you have the right to a refund, arranged through your State Medicaid office.
In a Medicare Advantage plan, ask the plan to stop the charges. And if a provider keeps billing, 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227, TTY 1-877-486-2048) is the number that ends it.
Are the limits monthly or yearly?
Monthly, and the distinction matters when comparing programs. Every Medicare Savings Program table on Medicare.gov is headed monthly income limit: QMB's 1,350 dollars in 2026 is a per-month figure. Extra Help, the drug-cost program in the same Savings family, publishes its limits as yearly figures instead.
Reading a monthly table as yearly, or the reverse, produces self-rejection errors in both directions, which is one more reason the page's standing instruction is to apply and let the state run the arithmetic. When estimating, match the period: monthly income against these tables, yearly income against Extra Help's.
The published figures are monthly. QMB's 2026 limits are 1,350 dollars individual and 1,824 dollars married (I6), and QI's are 1,816 dollars individual and 2,455 for a couple (I12). The limits also go up each year (I3).
Do the limits differ by state?
The federal tables are national, but the effective limits can differ, and Medicare.gov says so twice. Income limits run slightly higher in Alaska and Hawaii, with the exact figures left to the state contact.
And in any state, you may still qualify above the federal limits, because some states do not count certain types or specific amounts of income or resources when deciding.
That second sentence is the load-bearing one: it converts every borderline case into an apply-and-see case. The state contact, and the free counseling at SHIP, are the two published routes for finding what your own state counts.
What is the QDWI program for?
A precisely drawn situation: you have a disability, you are working, and you lost your Social Security disability benefits and premium-free Part A because you returned to work. For that person, QDWI pays the Part A premium, and only that.
Its 2026 numbers break the family pattern in both directions: the monthly income limit is far higher, 5,405 dollars individual and 7,299 for a couple, while the resource limit is far lower, 4,000 and 6,000 dollars.
The page states no Extra Help line under QDWI, unlike the other three programs. It is the narrowest door of the four, built for one specific return-to-work story.
Does QI really require reapplying every year?
Yes, and it is the only one of the four with that rule. Medicare.gov states it plainly: you must apply every year to stay in the QI Program, states approve applications first-come, first-served, and priority goes to people who got QI benefits the previous year.
QI also carries an exclusivity condition: it is only available to people who do not qualify for any other Medicaid coverage or benefits, though another Medicare Savings Program may still fit. The practical reading is a calendar habit: the QI enrollee's year has one mandatory date the other programs' years do not, and the priority rule rewards filing it early.
