Medicaid 2026 by State: Spouse Savings, Home Equity, Divisor

Why a state table, and what it adds to our other Medicaid pages

Our page on rental property, LLC interests and Medicaid asset protection reads the federal law: the 60-month look-back, the penalty formula, trusts and how an illiquid asset counts, with four state divisors. Our page on life estate deeds covers what a deed does to taxes and recovery. This page does the other half of the decision for a couple: how much the spouse at home keeps, whether the house can disqualify, and what a gift costs in months, state by state, from the state's own 2026 paper.

The reason to read the state document, and not a national summary, is that federal law sets ranges and states choose inside them. CMS tells states to update their standards from January 1, 2026 and publishes only the range. Where a state publishes its figure, it is sometimes not the one a national summary assumes: Illinois' $143,172 and New York's $74,820 minimum are two examples we found in the state notices.

What CMS fixes for 2026

The home equity cap does not apply when the applicant's spouse, or a child under 21 (or a blind or disabled child), lawfully lives in the home (1396p(f)(2)). A reverse mortgage or home equity loan can reduce the equity (1396p(f)(3)); see our page on reverse mortgage principal limits and heirs for how that works.

The 51-jurisdiction table

Each cell comes from a state agency document we saved, dated in the cell or the source column. Not verified means we did not obtain a 2026 state document with that number. The reasons are in the last column: some state sites refused our requests, and some pages gave only an older year. We did not use law-firm or calculator pages for any cell.

Notes on how to read the table (our reading):

• Spouse resource allowance. The usual rule is half of the couple's combined countable resources, with a floor and a cap. The cell shows the range or cap the state document states. Wisconsin's publication shows the cap applying once the couple has $325,320 or more; Georgia's chart lists the cap plus the applicant's own $2,000 as a combined resource limit of $164,660.
• Colorado and Oklahoma. Colorado's memo lists an Average Private Pay Rate of $10,814 for January 1, 2026; Oklahoma's schedule states an average daily cost of $251.07. Neither document says in those lines that the figure is the transfer-penalty divisor, so treat both as the number to ask about, not as a confirmed divisor.
• Oregon. The rule text we read is in a notice of proposed rulemaking filed July 31, 2026. It lists $14,585 for an initial month from October 1, 2024 to before October 1, 2026 and $16,760 from October 1, 2026. We have not confirmed that the new figure was adopted.
• Maryland. Its 2026 schedule lists $752,000 in a row dated 2025, so confirm with Maryland that $752,000 is the figure it applies in 2026.
• Estate recovery is not in this table. No single primary document gives each state's definition of the estate; our asset protection page covers the federal rule in 42 U.S.C. 1396p(b).

Three differences that change what a family keeps

1. The cap on the spouse's share is not the same everywhere

For a couple with $400,000 of countable resources, half is $200,000 and every cap above binds. Under the federal maximum the spouse at home keeps up to $162,660; under Illinois' $143,172 the cap is $19,488 lower (our arithmetic). Illinois' notice says the amount a resident may transfer is the standard minus the community spouse's own nonexempt resources, so the spouse's own savings count against it. New York goes the other way: its state minimum of $74,820 is more than double the federal $32,532. Minnesota lists no minimum.

2. A $900,000 house is excluded in some states and a problem in others

A home with $900,000 of value and a $100,000 mortgage has $800,000 of equity (our arithmetic). That is $48,000 over $752,000, the limit in the 12 states above, and $330,000 under $1,130,000, the limit in Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York. If the applicant's spouse or an under-21 child lives in the house the cap does not apply at all (1396p(f)(2)); the cap bites on a single person or a couple where the spouse also moves out. Hardship waivers exist (1396p(f)(4)), and state agencies run them.

3. The same gift costs months at different rates

The divisor is the state's price of a month of nursing-home care, so the same gift is divided by different numbers. On a $200,000 transfer, the table below is our arithmetic on the divisors in the state documents (it ignores exemptions, partial months and the date the clock starts).

The spread between Indiana and the Rochester region is 1.95 times (our arithmetic). Oregon's proposed $16,760 from October 1, 2026 would make the same transfer 11.93 months (our arithmetic). Dates matter as much as states: Indiana's figure applies to applications filed on or after July 1, 2026; California's applies to applications on or after January 1, 2026 and the state imposed no penalty for transfers made from January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2025 (ACWDL 26-03); Georgia's chart is dated April 2026.

The 25 jurisdictions we could not read

Twenty-five jurisdictions have no verified cell at all: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia and Wyoming. For Alabama, Maine and Washington the rule is a formula (the average private-pay cost) and the dollar figure sits on a chart we did not obtain. The 26 states we did read still have blanks where their documents did not carry a number. In several cases the state website returned an access error to our requests, which is why the cell says not verified rather than missing. If you live in one of them, the right sources are the state's Medicaid eligibility manual and its annual spousal impoverishment notice, which CMS requires states to update from January 1.

What this means for the decision

What the documents make decisive, not a recommendation (our reading):

• Whether one spouse stays home. Spouse savings, the home equity cap and the monthly income allowance all exist to protect the spouse at home; a single person gets none of them.
• The state, then the date. Divisors change by state and by date, and a state can sit at the floor or the ceiling on home equity.
• The size of the house. Above $752,000 of equity the choice of state matters; below it, it does not.
• Gifts. The 60-month look-back and the divisor decide what a gift costs; our asset protection page works through a rental building.
• Other ways to pay for care. A hybrid long-term care policy is a separate lever, with its own tax treatment; see our page on hybrid long-term care insurance.
• After death. Whether a house or rental passes through probate or outside it changes what recovery can reach; see probate of real estate and ancillary probate by state.

Who does this work: eligibility is decided by the state agency, and planning around the look-back and the house is done by an elder law attorney licensed in your state. The match below connects you with financial advisers who can look at the whole balance sheet, including how much to keep to pay for care and the tax on selling a rental or a home. An adviser does not decide eligibility and does not draft legal documents. If you already have an attorney, take the row for your state to that meeting.

This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice.

What a reader can do with this

• Find your state's row and its date, then open the state document named in the last column. If the cell says not verified, ask the state's Medicaid office for the current spousal impoverishment notice and the divisor effective date.
• Make two lists before any stay: the couple's countable resources at the start of the stay (your state's manual names the exact date) and the equity in the home. Half of the first list, bounded by your state's minimum and maximum, is the starting point for the spouse's share.
• Compare the home's equity with your state's limit and note whether the spouse or an under-21 child lives there. If equity is near $752,000 or $1,130,000, ask which limit the state uses and when it last updated.
• Run your own penalty arithmetic with your state's divisor: the amount you would give away divided by the divisor, for example $200,000 divided by $11,122 is 17.98 months in Georgia (our arithmetic). Remember every transfer in the 60 months is added together.
• Check the July 1 and January 1 dates. CMS resets the resource and home equity figures each January and the monthly allowance each July 1 ($2,705.00 from July 1, 2026); several states update their divisor on July 1 or October 1.
• Do not fill a blank from a blog. If your state is not verified here, the number that matters is on a state page that changes every year.

FAQ

Sources, read and saved on October 23, 2026: CMS CMCS Informational Bulletins of December 9, 2025 and April 27, 2026 (medicaid.gov); 42 U.S.C. 1396p (govinfo.gov); Public Law 119-21 section 71108; California DHCS ACWDL 26-03; Colorado HCPF OM 25-073; Connecticut DSS program standards chart (March 1, 2026); Georgia DFCS Appendix A1 (2026); Illinois HFS notice PRN 260122A; Indiana FSSA manual 3006.00.00; Iowa HHS Employees Manual 8-D (May 22, 2026); Louisiana LDH chart Z-2300; Maryland Medical Assistance Manual schedules; MassHealth financial guidelines; Minnesota DHS Eligibility Policy Manual Appendix F; Montana DPHHS CMA 001; New Hampshire DHHS SR 26-01; New Jersey DMAHS Communications 26-01 and 26-05; New York DOH GIS 26 MA/03 and GIS 25 MA/14; North Carolina Medicaid manual MA-3322; North Dakota Medicaid Release 26.1; Ohio Medicaid MEPL 191; Oklahoma DHS standards schedules; Oregon notice of proposed rulemaking filed July 31, 2026; Pennsylvania DHS long-term care page; Tennessee TennCare resource assessment instructions; Texas HHSC handbook Appendix XXXI; Virginia DMAS Transmittal 37; Washington HCA rule filing WSR 26-06-050; Wisconsin DHS publication P-10063; Alabama Administrative Code 560-X-25-.09; MaineCare Eligibility Manual charts. Other states' documents were unavailable or older than 2026 and are marked not verified.