Can I Get Medicaid If I Have Money in the Bank?

Whether money in the bank disqualifies you from Medicaid depends on which Medicaid you’re applying for. If you’re under 65 and applying as an adult, parent, pregnant woman, or child, your bank balance doesn’t factor into eligibility at all — only your income does. If you’re 65 or older, blind, disabled, or applying for nursing home or waiver services, most states cap your countable assets at $2,000 for an individual and $3,000 for a married couple, and every dollar in checking, savings, or a CD counts against that limit.¹ Several categories of property are excluded from that calculation, and there are legitimate ways to bring countable resources under the threshold.

When Your Bank Balance Doesn’t Matter

Since 2014, most Medicaid applicants have qualified under Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) rules, which look only at taxable income and tax-filing relationships. MAGI eligibility covers most children, pregnant women, parents, and adults who qualify through the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion. Under MAGI, there is no asset or resource test.² You could have $50,000 in savings and still qualify, as long as your income falls within your state’s limit.

In states that expanded Medicaid under the ACA, adults with income at or below roughly 138% of the federal poverty level can qualify regardless of what they have in the bank. Not every state has adopted the expansion, so your state’s income rules matter. But if you’re under 65, not applying on the basis of a disability, and your income is low enough, your savings account is irrelevant to the decision.

Who Actually Faces an Asset Limit

Asset testing applies to people whose Medicaid eligibility is based on age (65 and older), blindness, or disability. These applicants are exempt from MAGI rules and go through a more traditional financial screening that looks at both income and resources.² Anyone applying for nursing home Medicaid or a home and community-based waiver also faces asset testing, regardless of age.

The federal resource limits, which most states follow, are $2,000 for an individual and $3,000 for a married couple living together.¹ These figures are tied to the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program and have not been adjusted for inflation in decades, which is why they feel impossibly low. A handful of states use higher limits or have removed the asset test for certain groups, but the $2,000/$3,000 threshold is the norm.

Income limits for these programs are also tied to SSI. For 2026, the SSI Federal Benefit Rate is $994 per month for an individual and $1,491 for a couple.³ Some states set their Medicaid income limits at 100% of the federal poverty level or use other thresholds, but the SSI figure is the baseline in most states.

What Counts Toward the Asset Limit

Federal regulations define a countable resource as cash or any property you own that could be converted to cash for your support. Every dollar in a checking account, savings account, or certificate of deposit counts.⁴ Beyond bank accounts, countable resources typically include:

Stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, which are treated as liquid because they can generally be sold within 20 days.
Non-homestead real estate — a vacation home, rental property, or vacant land — at its equity value.
The cash surrender value of life insurance, in most states, when the total face value of your policies exceeds $1,500.
Retirement accounts such as IRAs and 401(k)s, with treatment that varies by state. Some states exempt accounts in payout status and count only the distributions as income; others count the full balance no matter what. As of 2026, a majority of states count retirement balances.

The total value of your countable resources is measured on the first day of each month. If you have $2,100 in combined countable assets as an individual, you’re $100 over the line and ineligible that month, even if the overage is short-lived.

What Doesn’t Count

Several categories of property are excluded from the calculation, which is how many people with real wealth in certain forms still qualify.

Your Home

Your primary residence is exempt as long as you live there or intend to return, and your equity stays below your state’s limit. For 2026, the federal minimum home equity limit is $752,000 and the maximum is $1,130,000.¹ Each state picks a figure in that range. Most use the minimum; about a dozen states and the District of Columbia use the higher limit.⁵ California has no home equity limit. The exemption protects the home during your lifetime, though it can become subject to estate recovery after death.

Other Exempt Property

One automobile, typically excluded regardless of value.
Household goods and personal belongings — furniture, appliances, clothing.
Designated burial funds (often up to $1,500), burial plots, and irrevocable prepaid funeral arrangements.
Funds in an ABLE account for a person with a qualifying disability. For Medicaid purposes, ABLE balances are disregarded with no dollar cap; for SSI, only the first $100,000 is excluded, but Medicaid eligibility itself is protected above that.⁶

How to Get Below the Limit

If your countable resources exceed the limit, you don’t have to abandon Medicaid. You can spend down the excess on legitimate expenses before applying. Common approaches include paying off a mortgage or other debt, making home repairs or accessibility modifications, purchasing a prepaid irrevocable burial plan, buying needed household furnishings, and paying for dental care or other medical costs insurance doesn’t cover.

The spending has to be for fair value. Giving $10,000 to a family member is not spending down — it’s a transfer, and transfers trigger penalties that are worse than being over the asset limit in the first place. See the look-back section below.

The Medically Needy Spend-Down for Income

Separate from reducing assets, some states operate “medically needy” programs that let people with income above the Medicaid limit qualify by spending the excess on medical costs. You subtract qualifying medical expenses — insurance premiums, prescriptions, unpaid medical bills, equipment — from your income until what remains falls below the state’s threshold. Once your medical spending bridges the gap, Medicaid covers the rest.² Not every state offers this, so confirm with your state Medicaid agency.

The Five-Year Look-Back on Transfers

Before you consider moving money to a relative to get under the limit, understand this rule. When you apply for nursing home Medicaid or a home and community-based waiver, the state reviews all financial transactions from the previous 60 months. Any assets you gave away or sold for less than fair market value during that window trigger a penalty period during which Medicaid will not pay for your long-term care.⁵

The penalty is calculated by dividing the value of the improper transfers by your state’s average monthly private-pay nursing home cost. Give away $120,000 in a state where nursing home care averages $10,000 a month, and you face a 12-month penalty during which you pay for care out of pocket, despite having already given the money away. The penalty period doesn’t start until you’ve applied for Medicaid and would otherwise be eligible, so you can’t wait it out.

Transfers That Don’t Trigger a Penalty

Transfers to a spouse, which are unlimited.
Transfer of your home to an adult child who lived with you for at least two years immediately before you entered a nursing home and whose care delayed your need for institutional placement.
Transfer of your home to a sibling who already has an equity interest in it and lived there for at least one year before your institutionalization.
Transfers to a blind or disabled child, or to a trust established solely for their benefit.
Returned assets: if the transferred property comes back, the penalty is reversed.

The look-back applies only to long-term care Medicaid, not to community Medicaid for people under 65. But because nursing home costs run into hundreds of dollars per day, a penalty period with no way to pay is one of the most financially destructive Medicaid mistakes a family can make. Transfers meant to protect assets need to be planned years in advance, ideally with an elder law attorney.

Spousal Protections in Long-Term Care Cases

When one spouse enters a nursing home and applies for Medicaid, federal law prevents the remaining spouse from being left destitute. The community spouse — the one still at home — keeps a protected share of the couple’s combined resources, called the Community Spouse Resource Allowance. For 2026, the CSRA ranges from $32,532 to $162,660, depending on the state and the couple’s total countable assets.¹

The community spouse also receives a Minimum Monthly Maintenance Needs Allowance, which lets a portion of the institutionalized spouse’s income be diverted if the community spouse’s own income is too low. For 2026, the MMMNA floor is $2,643.75 in most states, with a maximum of $4,066.50.¹ For a married couple, the picture is more flexible than the raw $3,000 asset limit suggests.

The Home Exemption Isn’t Permanent: Estate Recovery

Keeping your home while alive doesn’t mean it’s permanently safe. Federal law requires every state to seek reimbursement from the estates of deceased Medicaid recipients who were 55 or older when they received benefits. At minimum, states must recover costs paid for nursing facility services, home and community-based services, and related hospital and prescription drug costs.⁵ Some states go further and recover for all Medicaid services.

Recovery cannot happen while a surviving spouse is alive, and states must also hold off if there’s a surviving child under 21 or a child who is blind or disabled.⁵ A sibling who lived in the home for at least a year before the recipient’s institutionalization, or a child who lived there for at least two years and provided care that delayed institutional placement, can also block recovery of the home. States can grant hardship waivers, and many do when the home is of modest value. Some states pursue claims aggressively; others recover very little.⁷ If you plan to leave your home to heirs, estate recovery is a factor to think through early.

One final caution on the paperwork side. States verify income and assets through electronic databases, so omissions and inconsistencies get flagged. Intentionally hiding a bank account or misrepresenting your finances can result in denial, repayment obligations, and criminal penalties. If you’re close to the line, the answer is careful planning, not concealment.

1
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. 2026 SSI and Spousal Impoverishment Standards
2
Medicaid.gov. Eligibility Policy
3
Social Security Administration. How Much You Could Get from SSI
4
eCFR. 20 CFR Part 416 Subpart L – Resources and Exclusions
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 1396p – Liens, Adjustments and Recoveries, and Transfers of Assets
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 529A – Qualified ABLE Programs
7
KFF. What is Medicaid Estate Recovery