Two separate programs cut what people with Medicare pay in 2026, and each has its own front door. Extra Help, which lowers prescription drug costs, is open to individuals with income up to $23,940 a year and resources up to $18,090, and is applied for through the Social Security Administration (SSA). The Medicare Savings Programs, which can pay the $202.90 monthly Part B premium outright, are run by state Medicaid agencies. The figures come from Medicare.gov and from the CMS 2026 premium fact sheet published on November 14, 2025.
The 2026 Extra Help limits
- Individual: income up to $23,940 a year, resources up to $18,090
- Married couple: income up to $32,460 a year, resources up to $36,100
Extra Help applies to Part D prescription drug costs. Applications are filed with SSA through its online Extra Help application, not with Medicare and not with the state.
The three Medicare Savings Programs
The Savings Programs are tiered by monthly income, and the tier determines what is covered. Published limits for 2026 are:
- QMB (Qualified Medicare Beneficiary): $1,350 a month for an individual, $1,824 for a couple
- SLMB (Specified Low-Income Medicare Beneficiary): $1,616 individual, $2,184 couple
- QI (Qualifying Individual): $1,816 individual, $2,455 couple
- Resources: $9,950 for an individual and $14,910 for a couple
All three go through the state Medicaid agency, as Medicare.gov’s Savings Programs page sets out. That is the practical detail that trips people up: an application to SSA does not start a Savings Program claim, and an application to the state does not start Extra Help.
What the Part B premium costs over a year
The standard Part B premium in 2026 is $202.90 a month, with an annual deductible of $283, according to the CMS fact sheet. By way of illustration, twelve months of the standard premium comes to about $2,434.80, before the deductible. That is the sum a Savings Program can remove from a household budget, which is why the income lines above matter so much at the margin.
Higher earners pay more through the income-related monthly adjustment amount, which begins above $109,000 of income for an individual and $218,000 for a joint filer. On the drug side, Part D out-of-pocket costs are capped at $2,100 in 2026.
One caveat on the hold harmless rule
The hold harmless provision normally stops a Part B premium increase from reducing the dollar amount of a Social Security check. It does not protect everyone. It does not apply to people newly enrolling in Part B, to people paying the income-related surcharge, or to people whose premium is paid by Medicaid, which includes QMB enrollees.
Where this sits in the calendar
Medicare Fall Open Enrollment opens on Thursday, October 15, 2026 and runs to December 7, the window in which drug and Advantage plan choices are made for the following year. Extra Help and the Savings Programs are separate from that window: applications for both can be filed at any time of year.
The 2027 Part B premium will not be official until around mid-November 2026, so the $202.90 figure remains the number these programs are measured against for now. Even so, the 2026 limits are already in force, and eligibility turns on the income and resource lines above rather than on any announcement still to come.
