Medicare

By the Retiree Report Editorial Team · Updated 2026-06-01 · 7 min read

This article is general information, not medical advice. Talk with a licensed clinician before making any decision about your care.

Help with Medicare costs by state: SHIP counselors, savings programs, and the free checkups few people use

If your monthly income is under roughly $1,350 as a single person, the government may pay your entire Medicare Part B premium — $202.90 a month in 2026 — plus your deductibles and copays. Millions of people who qualify never sign up. The National Council on Aging estimates that about $30 billion in benefits for older adults goes unclaimed every year, much of it because people don’t know the programs exist or assume they earn too much.

This is a guide to the three things that fix that: the free counselors in your state, the four Medicare Savings Programs, and a 10-minute online checkup. None of them cost a dime.

What is a SHIP counselor, and why is the help free?

Every state runs a State Health Insurance Assistance Program — SHIP for short. It’s funded by the federal Administration for Community Living, and its entire job is to give Medicare beneficiaries one-on-one counseling from a source that isn’t trying to sell you anything. No commissions, no plan quotas, no upsell. A SHIP counselor doesn’t work for an insurance company.

That independence matters. When an agent calls about a Medicare Advantage plan, they earn money if you switch. A SHIP volunteer earns nothing either way, so they can tell you plainly whether a plan covers your doctors and drugs — or whether you’d be better off staying put. According to AARP’s Public Policy Institute, SHIPs serve millions of people a year through local offices, phone lines, and group sessions.

Counselors do more than compare plans. They’ll screen you for the cost-help programs below, walk you through the paperwork, and help you appeal a denied claim. To reach yours, call the national SHIP line at 1-877-839-2675 or use the locator at shiphelp.org, which lists an office in all 50 states plus the territories. Because each state runs its own program, the office name varies — yours might be called HICAP, SHIBA, or SHINE — but the locator finds it from your ZIP code.

The four Medicare Savings Programs, and what each one pays

Medicare Savings Programs (MSPs) are run by your state Medicaid office, and they’re the main tool for lowering what Medicare costs you each month. There are four, and they’re stacked by income.

The most generous is the Qualified Medicare Beneficiary (QMB) program. It pays your Part A and Part B premiums and your deductibles, coinsurance, and copayments. In the 48 contiguous states and D.C. for 2026, the monthly income limit is about $1,350 for a single person and $1,824 for a married couple, with resource limits near $9,950 and $14,910, according to the National Council on Aging. QMB carries a powerful extra protection: under federal law, providers are not allowed to bill you for Medicare cost-sharing at all. CMS calls this the prohibition on “balance billing,” and it applies even if your state Medicaid program reimburses the doctor nothing.

The next two programs pay only your Part B premium — that $202.90 a month — but they reach higher incomes:

• Specified Low-Income Medicare Beneficiary (SLMB): up to about $1,616 (single) or $2,184 (couple) in monthly income for 2026.
• Qualifying Individual (QI): up to about $1,816 (single) or $2,455 (couple). QI funds are limited and granted first-come, first-served, so applying early in the year helps.

The fourth, the Qualified Disabled and Working Individual program, is a narrower benefit for people under 65 who lost premium-free Part A after returning to work. For most readers, QMB, SLMB, or QI is the one that matters.

How much do the limits really change from state to state?

Quite a bit, and that’s the part that trips people up. The figures above are the federal baselines, but states are allowed to be more generous — and many are. Some states have dropped the asset test entirely, so your savings or a modest nest egg won’t disqualify you. Others raise the income ceilings or count income differently.

A handful of states have eliminated MSP resource limits, meaning only your income is checked. Several let you qualify with income above the federal cutoffs. The figures also bake in a standard $20 monthly income disregard, and Alaska and Hawaii use higher limits than the lower 48. So even if you ran the numbers once and came up just over the line, the answer in your state may be different from what a national chart shows.

Here’s the practical takeaway. Don’t disqualify yourself from the couch. The income and asset rules are genuinely confusing, they shift each year with the poverty guidelines, and the only way to know is to apply or ask. As Medicare.gov notes, you should apply if you think you might qualify even if your income or resources seem a little too high — because your state’s rules may be looser than the federal floor.

There’s a bonus worth knowing: enrolling in any of these MSPs automatically qualifies you for the Part D Low-Income Subsidy, also called Extra Help, which slashes the cost of your prescription drugs. One application, two benefits.

Run the free 10-minute checkup before you do anything else

Wondering where to start when there are dozens of programs and four sets of limits? Start with one screening tool. The National Council on Aging runs a free, confidential site called BenefitsCheckUp (benefitscheckup.org) that screens you against roughly 2,000 federal, state, and local programs using only your ZIP code and a few questions. It takes about 10 minutes and flags everything from the Medicare Savings Programs to food assistance and energy bill help.

If you’d rather talk to a person, NCOA staffs a Benefits Helpline at 1-800-794-6559, on weekdays. And once the tool or a counselor confirms what you likely qualify for, a SHIP volunteer can help you actually file the application with your state. The order that works: screen online, confirm with a human, then apply. Pair the savings-program review with our guide to Medicare Savings Program eligibility so you walk into that conversation knowing the questions to ask.

None of this is legal or financial advice, and your exact eligibility depends on your state and your full financial picture — a SHIP counselor or your local Medicaid office can give you a definitive answer.

What to remember

The single most expensive mistake is assuming you don’t qualify and never asking. State rules are looser than the federal baselines in many places, the limits change yearly, and the help to sort it out is free. Call your SHIP at 1-877-839-2675 or run a BenefitsCheckUp screening; if you land in a Medicare Savings Program, you may stop paying that $202.90 Part B premium and pick up drug-cost Extra Help in the same stroke. The money is already set aside — it just needs someone to claim it.