Do I qualify?
Free phone with Medicaid: how Medicaid opens Lifeline
Independent site, not the FCC, USAC or a phone company. Lifeline applications are made only on the official National Verifier or through your state.
Medicaid is already selected in the checker above. Change the state and household to see where your application goes and whether a document will be asked for.
You qualify through your benefit
$9.25 off per month
| 2026 income limit, 4 people | $44,550 |
| Your income is over it by | $25,450 |
| Share of the poverty guideline | 212% |
| Discount over a year | $111 |
| Where to apply | National Verifier (USAC) |
- Medicaid: checked automatically against government records in this state.
- One Lifeline per household (48 states, DC and territories table). How to apply
Everything you enter stays in this browser: nothing is sent or stored. This is an estimate from the published rules; the decision is made by the National Verifier or your state.
Medicaid is one of the five federal programs that qualify a household for Lifeline under 47 CFR 54.409, and it works whatever the household earns: a family of four with $70,000 a year, far above the $44,550 income limit, still qualifies if one member is enrolled in Medicaid. The enrolled person can be you, a dependent such as a child, or anyone in your household. The discount is the same as on every other route, up to $9.25 a month off one phone or internet plan, or $34.25 on qualifying Tribal lands. Medicaid is also the program the National Verifier confirms most easily: USAC has a federal data connection with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and its table shows Medicaid checked automatically in all 50 states, DC, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Only in American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, and in the state processes of Oregon and Texas, does the answer depend on another channel. When the automatic match fails, a Medicaid letter dated within the last 12 months settles it.
Rules and figures read by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method
Why Medicaid skips the income test
The qualification rule gives two separate paths, joined by “or”: income at or below 135% of the guidelines, or receipt of one of the listed benefits. Medicaid is in that list, so the income figure is never compared with anything. This matters most for families whose income is too high for Lifeline on its own but who have a child or a parent enrolled in Medicaid.
Take a couple in New York with two children and $70,000 of gross income. On income alone, they are $25,450 over the limit for four. Their younger child is enrolled in Medicaid: the household qualifies through that child, and the parents can hold the benefit on their own phone plan. The same logic applies to an adult enrolled in Medicaid living with relatives who share expenses: the whole household qualifies, but for one benefit only.
Where Medicaid is checked automatically
The USAC table of automated data sources lists Medicaid as automatic in every state and in DC, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Fifteen states have two connections, federal and state, for Medicaid: Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. In American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, Medicaid goes through manual review. Pick your state in the calculator below to see the answer for your case:
Will your benefit be checked automatically?
In New York
Checked automatically by the National Verifier
| Benefit | Medicaid |
| Where to apply | Apply through the National Verifier |
| A document must be dated | within 12 months |
From USAC’s table of automated data sources by state.
In New York, for example, the National Verifier checks Federal Public Housing Assistance, Medicaid and the Veterans Pension automatically. Oregon and Texas run their own application, connected to their own state databases. An automatic match can still fail, for example when your name or date of birth is written differently in the Medicaid file, which is why keeping a letter at hand is worth it.
The Medicaid document that works
When the match fails, USAC’s list of accepted documents asks for a copy that shows four things: your name, or the name of the person in your household who receives Medicaid; the name of the program; the government agency, Tribal administrator or managed care organization that issued it; and an issue date within the last 12 months or a future expiration date. States give Medicaid different names, and USAC publishes a list of those names by state, so a letter that uses your state’s own name for Medicaid is fine. Send a copy, never the original. Online uploads during business hours are reviewed within minutes; a mailed copy, with the cover sheet, gets an answer by mail in 7 to 10 business days.
Medicaid and the yearly renewal
Every subscriber goes through a recertification each year that starts with an automated data check. A household still enrolled in Medicaid in a state with an automatic connection usually passes it without doing anything. If the check fails, USAC sends a form and you have 60 days to answer; a subscriber who passed the automated check the previous year but fails it now must also send proof of eligibility with the form.
After approval: one plan, one company
Medicaid approval does not come with a phone. It entitles the household to a discount on one plan from an approved company, which you choose by ZIP code on the companies page. If the company offers a plan priced at the discount amount, the monthly bill can be zero. Under 47 CFR 54.403, the company must pass the full support through to you. If your household also gets SNAP, the food stamps page compares the two routes state by state.