βοΈ HEALS vs HEROES Stimulus Comparison
The two rival 2020 second-check plans, side by side.
Best of the three proposals for you
Estimates for planning only, not financial advice.
Single filer, $70,000 income, two kids: the CARES Act paid $2,200, the HEALS proposal would have paid $2,200, and the HEROES Act would have paid $3,600. Same taxpayer, three different checks, because the 2020 second-stimulus debate was really an argument about how much a dependent is worth.
How to Use This Calculator
Enter filing status, AGI, children under 17, and adult dependents separately, because the three plans treated them differently. The calculator runs all three formulas and names the winner for your household.
Split dependents into children and adults. CARES only paid for children under 17; HEALS and HEROES paid for both.
Enter AGI. All three plans used the same thresholds and the same $5-per-$100 phaseout.
Compare. HEROES usually wins for families with kids; HEALS wins for households with many adult dependents.
The Three Formulas
The structure is identical; only the dependent line differs. That single line is where the politics lived. HEALS valued every dependent at $500 with no cap, favoring large and multigenerational households. HEROES valued each at $1,200 but capped at three, favoring typical nuclear families with kids. Neither became law, which makes this a clean natural experiment in policy design.
Worked Example
Single, $70,000 AGI, two children under 17, no adult dependents. CARES: 1,200 + 2 x 500 = $2,200. HEALS: 1,200 + 2 x 500 = $2,200 (same, since the kids are under 17). HEROES: 1,200 + 2 x 1,200 = $3,600. Now add two adult dependents (college kids): CARES stays $2,200, HEALS rises to 1,200 + 4 x 500 = $3,200, HEROES hits its cap: 1,200 + 3 x 1,200 = $4,800. The crossover point where HEALS beats HEROES is around four or more dependents, because HEROES caps at three.
Who Won Under Each Plan
| Household | CARES | HEALS | HEROES |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single, no kids | $1,200 | $1,200 | $1,200 |
| Single, 2 kids | $2,200 | $2,200 | $3,600 |
| Joint, 3 kids | $3,900 | $3,900 | $6,000 |
| Single, 2 adult dependents | $1,200 | $2,200 | $3,600 |
| Joint, 5 dependents | $3,400* | $4,900 | $6,000 |
*CARES counts only the under-17 children here. The pattern: HEROES dominated for ordinary families, HEALS helped the most households at the margin by covering adult dependents with no cap, and CARES was the stingiest for anyone with non-child dependents.
Why Neither Passed
HEROES passed the House in May 2020 at $3 trillion and was declared dead on arrival in the Senate. HEALS arrived in July at $1 trillion as the Senate GOP counter. The gap was not just the checks: unemployment supplements ($600 vs $200/week), state aid, and liability shields were all hundreds of billions apart, and the election removed any reason to split the difference. The December compromise delivered $600 checks using the CARES formula. For the enacted first check, see our CARES payment calculator; for the unemployment side of the same fight, the HEALS unemployment calculator.
What the Debate Reveals
Strip away the acronyms and the 2020 debate asked two design questions every future relief bill will face. First, are dependents worth the same as adults? HEROES said yes, HEALS said half, CARES said half but only for young children. Second, should there be a cap? HEROES capped at three dependents, HEALS did not. Your answers to those two questions basically pick your plan, which is why this comparison still gets cited whenever new stimulus talk surfaces.
What the Comparison Teaches About Fiscal Design
Strip away the politics and the two bills embodied opposite theories of crisis relief. HEROES bet on breadth: big checks, extended supplements, state fiscal aid, on the theory that overshooting a demand collapse is safer than undershooting it. HEALS bet on precision: smaller checks, targeted business liability shields, back-to-work bonuses, on the theory that relief should not outlast or distort the recovery. The December 2020 compromise and the March 2021 American Rescue Plan both landed closer to HEROES, suggesting breadth won the empirical argument that round.
The design details mattered more than the toplines. HEROES included nearly $1 trillion for state and local governments, which prevented the public-sector layoffs that deepened the Great Recession; HEALS offered a fraction of that. Economists' post-mortems credit state aid as one of the highest-multiplier components of pandemic relief. When the next crisis comes, watch the state-aid line before the check line: it is the quieter number that decides whether the recovery has headwinds.
Two Philosophies, One Lesson
HEALS and HEROES embodied the two permanent schools of crisis fiscal policy: targeted, temporary, and worried about debt versus broad, sustained, and worried about doing too little. The 2020-2021 outcome, checks plus supplements plus state aid totaling trillions, was closer to HEROES in scale and HEALS in structure. The lesson for reading future fights: the opening bids define the poles, the enacted law lands between them, and the unemployment supplement is always the hardest piece to negotiate.
Estimates for planning only, not financial advice.
Frequently Asked Questions
What was the difference between HEALS and HEROES stimulus checks?
HEALS offered $1,200 per adult plus $500 per dependent of any age with no cap. HEROES offered $1,200 per adult plus $1,200 per dependent, capped at three dependents. Both used the CARES income thresholds and phaseout. HEROES paid more to typical families; HEALS covered more dependents.
Which was more generous, HEALS or HEROES?
HEROES, for most families: $1,200 per dependent versus $500, up to three dependents ($3,600 max in dependent payments). A married couple with three kids got $6,000 under HEROES versus $3,900 under HEALS. HEALS only won for households with four or more dependents, where the HEROES cap bit.
Did either the HEALS or HEROES Act become law?
No. HEROES passed the House in May 2020 but never the Senate; HEALS was a Senate GOP proposal from July 2020 that never got a floor vote. The checks that actually went out used the CARES formula: $1,200 in spring 2020, $600 in December 2020, $1,400 in March 2021.
How much did HEROES pay per dependent?
$1,200 per dependent, up to a maximum of three dependents ($3,600). Dependents of any age qualified. Combined with $1,200 per adult ($2,400 joint), the maximum household payment was $6,000 for a married couple with three or more dependents. That was more than double the HEALS proposal's $500 per dependent, and the three-dependent cap meant larger families saw no extra dollars for a fourth child.
Did HEALS have a dependent cap?
No. HEALS paid $500 per dependent with no maximum number, which is why very large or multigenerational households did better under HEALS than HEROES. An estimated 26 million more dependents would have qualified under HEALS than under the CARES Act.
Did the proposals cover adult dependents?
Yes, both of them, unlike CARES. HEALS and HEROES both counted dependents of any age with a valid SSN: college students, elderly parents, disabled adults. This was HEALS' signature change from the CARES Act it otherwise copied. The expansion had rare bipartisan logic: the pandemic's caregiving burden fell heavily on families supporting adult relatives, and both parties heard about it.
What were the income limits?
Identical across all three: full payment up to $75,000 single, $112,500 head of household, $150,000 joint, phasing out at $5 per $100 above. The debate was never about the thresholds; it was about the dependent line. Note the phaseout stretched further for bigger families: a married couple with three dependents under HEROES phased out completely at $270,000, not $198,000.
Why did Congress not pass either bill?
The House and Senate were hundreds of billions apart on unemployment aid, state funding, and liability protections, and the November 2020 election removed incentives to compromise. A smaller December deal delivered $600 checks instead of either proposal's formula. The Georgia Senate runoffs then flipped the chamber, and the March 2021 American Rescue Plan enacted much of the HEROES architecture with $1,400 checks.
What actually replaced these proposals?
The Consolidated Appropriations Act of December 2020 included $600 per person checks, and the American Rescue Plan of March 2021 included $1,400 per person. Both used the CARES structure: $500/$600/$1,400 per dependent with no age expansion beyond the Rescue Plan's broader dependent definition.