Here is a good review on what will happen to ACA (Obama Care) for 2026. It also includes a premium calculator:
When you qualify for a tax credit, that amount is determined by a sliding scale. The government says that based on your income, you are supposed to pay this percentage of your income toward the Second Lowest-Cost Silver Plan in your area. The government will take care of the rest after you pay that amount.
If you pick a less expensive policy than the Second Lowest-Cost Silver Plan, you keep 100% of the savings, up to the point you get the policy for free. If you choose a more expensive policy than the Second Lowest-Cost Silver Plan, you pay 100% of the difference.
The Sliding Scale
That sliding scale is called the Applicable Percentages Table. The applicable percentages were lowered significantly between 2021 and 2025. It reduced the amount that many people pay for their ACA health insurance. These percentages will go up sharply in 2026.
Here are the applicable percentages for different income levels in 2025 and 2026:
| Income | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| < 133% FPL | 0% | 2.1% |
| 133% – 150% FPL | 0% | 3.14% – 4.19% |
| 150% – 200% FPL | 0% – 2% | 4.19% – 6.6% |
| 200% – 250% FPL | 2% – 4% | 6.6% – 8.44% |
| 250% – 300% FPL | 4% – 6% | 8.44% – 9.96% |
| 300% – 400% FPL | 6% – 8.5% | 9.96% |
| > 400% FPL | 8.5% | Unlimited |
Source: IRS Rev. Proc. 2024-35, Rev. Proc. 2025-25.
Calculator
I created a calculator that shows how much you can expect to pay toward a Second Lowest Cost Silver Plan in your area in 2025 and 2026. This doesn’t include the relative price changes between the plan you choose and the benchmark plan. You’ll pay extra if the price for your plan increases more than the benchmark plan, or less than the amount shown if the price for your plan goes up less than the benchmark plan.
Check out the link for the actual calculator (see below for link):
https://thefinancebuff.com/aca-premium-tax-credit-percentages.html
Great resource. This gives the info for Pralana to update the ACA subsidies for 2026 on then, and it should be easy enough for the programmer's to extrapolate the percentages between the ranges.
FYI, Pralana Online currently uses lookup tables for the expected family contribution factors in 1% increments of FPL multiples for the pre/post enhanced subsidy years. I will need to review and possibly update the post-enhancement tables and may need to implement interpolation, as suggested, until the 2026 Form 8962 or other source is published with the updated detailed tables.
Subscribers may currently set the year of expiration of the enhanced subsidies.
If there is interest, I can expose these multiples and the expected family contributions on the Tax Forms & Brackets page.
FYI, Pralana Online currently uses lookup tables for the expected family contribution factors in 1% increments of FPL multiples for the pre/post enhanced subsidy years. I will need to review and possibly update the post-enhancement tables and may need to implement interpolation, as suggested, until the 2026 Form 8962 or other source is published with the updated detailed tables.
@cstone, out of curiosity has the lookup table been updated to reflect the % of income found at https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/rp-25-25.pdf ?
