Medicare Savings Programs in California

California phased its asset test out and then reinstated it. For 2024 and 2025 the state counted no resources for these programmes. From 1 January 2026 it counts them again. The rule DHCS states is $130,000 for one person plus $65,000 for each additional household member, up to ten — so the $195,000 shown above for two is that rule applied to one extra member, not a separate published figure.

This matters more than an ordinary limit change, because guidance written during the no-asset years is still circulating and still says California has no asset test. It did. It does not now. Anyone relying on a page that has not been updated since 2025 is reading a rule that has been superseded.

California publishes $1,330 where the federal screening figure is $1,350. California does not label which convention its table uses, but the figure it prints is exactly the poverty guideline, and the $20 gap is the general income disregard — applied separately rather than printed inside the limit. On that reading the state is not stricter than federal: the two figures describe the same rule written two different ways. It is worth checking against the agency page before relying on the difference.

This is the part a state agency page cannot tell you, because it has only its own figures. We hold all 51.

• Income. California’s QMB limit of $1,330 is the 23rd highest of the 46 jurisdictions publishing a comparable figure, at 99% of the federal screening limit. The highest is the District of Columbia at $4,010; most states sit at $1,350 or the bare $1,330 beneath it.
• Resources. California is one of only 3 jurisdictions with a resource limit above the federal figure — the others being Colorado and Minnesota — while 12 apply no resource test at all.

The full table of all 51 carries every figure with the agency page it came from.

All three programmes carry full Extra Help for Part D automatically — federal regulation treats anyone eligible for QMB, SLMB or QI as a full-subsidy individual, with no separate application. And the Part D late enrollment penalty, which is otherwise permanent, is not charged while someone is subsidy-eligible. Qualifying in California therefore stops a penalty being charged for as long as the eligibility lasts — a waiver for that period rather than a cancellation, since a later gap in coverage without Extra Help can bring one back.

Applications go to your county social services office, or online through BenefitsCal — not to Medicare, and not to this site. Applying for Extra Help through Social Security also starts a savings-programme application with the state unless you ask it not to. Free, unbiased help is available from a State Health Insurance Assistance Program counsellor at shiphelp.org.