The eligibility navigator, embeddable
Five questions map a household to the New York programs open to it: Medicaid, the Essential Plan, Child Health Plus, NYC Care and marketplace plans. It runs entirely in the visitor’s browser. Nothing is stored, nothing is transmitted, and there is no analytics call inside the frame.
<iframe src="https://nycmednews.com/embed/eligibility/"
width="100%" height="720" style="border:1px solid #ddd;border-radius:6px"
title="New York health coverage eligibility navigator"
loading="lazy"></iframe>
For a Spanish-speaking audience, point the same frame at the Spanish navigator and the interface follows:
<iframe src="https://nycmednews.com/es/embed/elegibilidad/"
width="100%" height="760" style="border:1px solid #ddd;border-radius:6px"
title="Navegador de elegibilidad de cobertura de salud en Nueva York"
loading="lazy"></iframe>
What it does not do. It does not decide anything. It shows which doors are open at a stated income and household size, and links to the page explaining each. The application at NY State of Health is what decides, and the navigator says so on every result.
A shareable result. The navigator writes its state into the page address, so a caseworker can send a household the exact result they saw rather than instructions for reproducing it.
Tables you may reproduce
The income thresholds on this site are not typed in. They are computed from two numbers, the HHS poverty guideline base and the per-person step, which live in one configuration file. When HHS publishes new guidelines each January, those two numbers change and every table, calculator and threshold on the site recalculates. That is why an embed stays correct and a screenshot does not.
| What | Where | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Every 2026 threshold by household size, 100% to 400% | Income limits 2026 | Intake, eligibility screening, training |
| Hospital financial assistance tiers under the amended law | Hospital financial assistance | Billing advocacy, medical debt clinics |
| Child Health Plus premium tiers per child | Income limits 2026 | Family intake |
| The three enrollment calendars, kept apart | Open enrollment | Seasonal outreach |
Reproduce them with attribution to NYC Med News and a link to the page. You do not need to ask.
Pages that work as handouts
Every guide prints clean: the header, footer, table of contents, search overlay and images are removed by the print stylesheet, and internal links print with their full address so a paper copy stays usable. Three that were built to be printed and handed over:
- What to say — the exact sentences for a billing office, a registration desk and a collection agency.
- The renewal checklist — a twenty-minute review before a marketplace plan auto-renews, formatted as boxes to tick.
- Hospital financial assistance — the statutory caps, the application steps and the appeal route.
Spanish equivalents exist for the financial assistance and enrollment material under Costos and Cobertura.
What we will not do, so you can rely on us
We do not publish phone numbers or accepted plans we have not verified ourselves. The facility tables on our neighborhood pages come from the federal provider registry and carry names, types and addresses only, with an explicit note about what the registry cannot tell you. Published directories carry a known error rate and we will not launder theirs through our pages.
We do not rank or recommend practices. No hospital, practice or insurer pays to appear here, and there is no “best of” list built on anything other than data we collected and can show.
We do not give medical advice. Every page says so. We explain how the system works, what things cost and what the law requires.
We date everything. Each page carries the date we last verified it and lists the primary sources with their own check dates.
Tell us when we are wrong
If a threshold moved, a phone number changed, or a page describes a rule that no longer applies, that is the most valuable message we receive. Write to us at contact. Corrections from people who do this work daily go to the front of the queue, and every substantive fix is logged with a date in corrections.
If you work at one of the facilities listed on a neighborhood page and want its details right, tell us and we will verify and publish with a date attached.
Working with us
We are a small independent publication, not a program, an agency or a referral service. What we can offer an organization: the tools above, a page corrected quickly when you flag an error, and material in both languages written independently rather than machine-translated.
What we ask in return, if it is useful to you: a link, so the people you serve can find the rest of it.
Questions people ask
Do we need permission to embed the navigator?
No. Embed it, and no attribution is technically required inside the frame because the tool links back on its own. A link on the surrounding page is appreciated.
Does the embed track our visitors?
No. It loads no analytics, sets no cookies and makes no third-party requests. The arithmetic runs in the browser and the result is never transmitted.
Can we translate your pages for our own materials?
Reproduce with attribution and a link. For Spanish, use our Spanish pages rather than translating the English ones: they are written independently for a Spanish-speaking reader, and the program names are handled the way New York agencies handle them.
Will the embedded tool go out of date in January?
The thresholds recalculate from the federal poverty guidelines when those are updated, so an embed picks up the new numbers without you doing anything.
Can you add our organization to a directory?
We do not run a directory of organizations. What we do publish is verified facility information on neighborhood pages, and we would rather verify yours than list it unchecked.
Sources
- NY State of Health (checked 2026-09-07)
- HHS 2026 Poverty Guidelines (Federal Register, January 15, 2026) (checked 2026-09-07)
More in NYC Med News
- What Vaccines and Shots Cost in New York — Most vaccines are preventive care and are supposed to cost nothing on an insurance plan. Where you get one decides whether that holds, and children have a separate free program.
- 988 and Mobile Crisis Teams in New York: What Happens, and What It Costs — 988 is free, does not ask for insurance, and works by phone, text or chat. What actually happens when you contact it in New York, when a mobile crisis team comes instead, and what any of it costs.
- Missed Medicare Part B? The January Window, and the Route Around It — Missed your first chance at Part B? The General Enrollment Period runs January 1 to March 31. When coverage starts, what the penalty costs, and the savings-program route.
This page explains how the system works. It is not medical advice. More.