Patient Assistance Program Income Limits (2026)

There is no single income limit for prescription assistance. Each manufacturer sets its own, and across the programs on this list they range from 100% of the federal poverty level to 600%. Here is what every threshold works out to in dollars, and below it the two most-asked cases, leukemia drugs and cholesterol drugs. Updated October 20, 2026.

Where Most Programs Sit

Of the 405 medications on this list, 190 are set at 300% of poverty and 112 at 400%. Those two bands cover three quarters of everything here, so 300% is the working assumption if you have not looked your drug up yet.

The extremes are worth knowing about. A small number of programs go as high as 600% — $95,760 for one person — which is high enough that households who assume they earn too much frequently do not. At the other end, a handful sit at 100% or 150%, where almost nobody with steady income will qualify.

Leukemia Medication Assistance Program Income Limits

Short answer: with insurance, the income limits that matter for leukemia drugs are the charity co-pay funds, and they run higher than most programs on this page. Blood Cancer United (the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s new name) allows up to 600% of the federal poverty level, and Patient Advocate Foundation’s TotalAssist, which took over the PAN Foundation’s funds, allows up to 500% for its chronic lymphocytic leukemia fund. For one person that is $95,760 and $79,800, and for a family of four $198,000 and $165,000, before each charity raises the line for the cost of living in your ZIP code. Drug makers’ own free-medicine programs are stricter: the Novartis Patient Assistance Foundation has excluded anyone with private insurance since October 1, 2024.

What changed on September 1, 2026. Blood Cancer United moved its chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), myeloma, MDS, MPN and Waldenström funds to government coverage only. A household on an employer or marketplace plan that leaned on that fund for a CML drug now needs another route: the TotalAssist fund for the diagnosis when it opens, the drug maker’s copay program, or a plan whose drug list puts the drug on a lower tier. The Novartis foundation also took Gleevec (imatinib) off its list on January 1, 2025.

Funds open and close through the year as donations come in, so check the status on the day you apply (Blood Cancer United’s fund list, TotalAssist’s fund list). Both charities require insurance that covers the drug: the grant pays your copays, coinsurance, deductible and, for some funds, premiums. That makes the plan itself the bigger number for most families. Specialty-tier drugs usually carry coinsurance, and what you pay in a year stops at the plan’s out-of-pocket maximum, which the law caps at $12,000 for one person on most 2027 plans.

Income Limits for Cholesterol Medication Assistance Programs

Short answer: most people on a cholesterol drug never need an assistance program. Generic statins such as atorvastatin and rosuvastatin are inexpensive, and marketplace plans and most employer plans must cover a low- or moderate-dose statin at no cost to you for adults 40 to 75 who meet the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force criteria. Income limits matter for the brand-name drugs. The Amgen Safety Net Foundation, which gives Repatha free, sets its 2026 limit at 300% of the federal poverty level: $47,880 for one person and $99,000 for a family of four, and only for people with no insurance at all, medical or pharmacy. TotalAssist’s hypercholesterolemia fund, up to $3,800 a year, takes only people on government coverage.

• Repatha, uninsured: Amgen Safety Net Foundation, household income at or below $47,880 (1 person), $64,920 (2), $81,960 (3) or $99,000 (4), about 25% higher in Alaska and 15% higher in Hawaii (Amgen’s eligibility page).
• Repatha or another brand, with private insurance: the free-medicine programs are not open to you. The route is the drug maker’s copay program, which usually has no income limit but needs a plan that covers the drug.
• A generic statin: no income test. Ask whether your dose qualifies for the $0 preventive benefit before you pay a copay for it.

For a brand-name cholesterol drug, the questions that decide what you pay are the plan’s: is the drug on its list, on which tier, and does it need prior authorization first. Those answers differ between plans sold by the same insurer in the same county.

Household Size Moves the Line More Than People Expect

Each additional person in the household raises every threshold by $5,680 at 100%, and by multiples of that at higher bands. At 300%, going from one person to four raises the limit from $47,880 to $99,000. Count your household the way the tax return does, not the way the house does.

Income Is Not the Only Test

These programmes also require that you have no other way to pay for the drug — you are uninsured, or your plan does not cover it — and many exclude people on Medicare or Medicaid. Assistance is not insurance and does not count toward a deductible or out-of-pocket maximum. Full eligibility rules are on the overview.

Where These Income Figures Come From

The limits above use the 2026 federal poverty guidelines: $15,960 for a household of one, plus $5,680 for each additional person. A program set at 300% of poverty multiplies that figure by three.

One caution if you are also shopping marketplace coverage. Premium tax credits for the 2026 plan year run on the prior year's poverty guidelines, so the numbers you see on a subsidy page will not match the numbers here. Both are correct; they are simply different tables. Do not use one to estimate the other.

Thresholds and income limits change, and each manufacturer sets its own. Confirm the current figure with the program before you rely on it.

Whether a manufacturer program or a plan that actually covers the drug is the better route depends on what else you need covered. If you want that worked through, call (713) 575-9904.