Arkansas Medicaid Income Limits 2026: Eligibility & Assets

The Arkansas Medicaid income limits for 2026 are really two different limits, and which one applies to you depends on what you are applying for. For long-term care, the cap is $2,982 a month and Arkansas treats it as a hard ceiling: go one dollar over and you are not "almost eligible," you are out, unless you set up a specific legal trust. For the income-only (MAGI) groups, such as children and ARHOME adults under 65, the test is mostly a percentage of the federal poverty level, with no asset test.1,2,3 Arkansas is an income-cap state with no spend-down for nursing-home or waiver coverage, so an over-income long-term-care applicant's only path in is a Qualified Income Trust, also called a Miller Trust.1

Which Arkansas Medicaid income limit applies to you?

Arkansas runs two separate financial tests, and the one you face depends on who is applying and for what kind of coverage.

The $2,982 figure this guide leads with is the aged, blind, and disabled (ABD) test, used for institutional and waiver long-term care. It counts income against a dollar cap and pairs that with an asset limit.1

The other test is MAGI, short for Modified Adjusted Gross Income. It applies to children, pregnant women, parents and caretaker relatives, and the ACA expansion adult group, which covers adults under 65 who are not enrolled in Medicare.3,4 MAGI counts income only, measured as a percent of the federal poverty level, and federal law bars Arkansas from applying any asset or resource test to these groups.3 That is the sharpest practical difference between the two tracks: on the ABD side a single applicant is held to $2,000 in countable assets, and on the MAGI side savings are not counted at all.1,3

Which pathway a person is assessed under is usually decided by age and disability status, not by choice. For readers of an eldercare guide, that distinction has a hard edge, and it arrives on a birthday. See "The 65th birthday" below.

Arkansas MAGI income limits by group

Arkansas publishes its MAGI standards as a percent of FPL on the Arkansas DHS Health Care Eligibility Quick Reference chart (its MAGI pages are dated January 2025), using its own program names. The chart does not apply one blanket disregard. Most groups can reach a higher cutoff through an additional 5 percentage points of FPL disregarded when that is needed for eligibility; ARKids A also requires that the child has insurance; and parents and caretaker relatives get no income disregards at all.2

A note on the two columns, because families comparing sources get tripped up here. The national Medicaid.gov eligibility table lists Arkansas children at 142% in every age band, which is the base ARKids A standard on the state chart. The higher figures in the second column apply only under the conditions the chart attaches to each row, and on the ARKids rows those conditions decide which program a child lands in: a family between 142% and 147% FPL whose child is uninsured does not reach the ARKids A standard on this chart.2

Household size drives which dollar figure applies, and on the MAGI side household size is generally built from federal income-tax filing relationships (the "tax household"), not always: someone who does not expect to file taxes and will not be claimed as a dependent is counted under non-filer rules based on who lives with them.5 The MAGI household rules are not applied at all on the ABD track, which uses different financial methods, so the same family can be counted two ways depending on the pathway.5

Children's coverage is federally mandatory down to a floor of 133% FPL, so Arkansas's 142% ARKids A standard sits above the federal minimum, and ARKids B extends separate CHIP coverage above that.6,2

Parents and caretaker relatives: the pathway with the punishing limit

Of the MAGI groups, the one that most often matters to an eldercare reader is parents and caretaker relatives, and it carries by far the lowest standard on the chart: a dollar-based figure of $124 a month for a household of one, rising to $334 for a household of four, with no income disregards applied.2

There is a reason it is that low, and it is not an Arkansas quirk. Parents and caretaker relatives are a federally mandatory group, but their mandatory coverage is pegged to the state's own old cash-welfare (AFDC) income standard rather than to a percentage of the federal poverty level. Federal rules set the floor at the state's AFDC standard as of May 1, 1988, converted to a MAGI equivalent, and let a state go higher only up to a ceiling: its July 1996 AFDC standard raised by no more than inflation, or the higher level it covered in 2010 or 2013. So the federal floor is not the number to check; the state's own published standard is, and Arkansas's is the dollar figure above.7

A grandparent under 65 raising a grandchild may wonder whether this group fits. At $124 to $334 a month, though, its standard sits far below ARHOME's 138% FPL, so a caretaker over the ARHOME line will not get under this one either. One condition applies on the ARHOME side: a parent or caretaker relative living with a dependent child under 19 can be covered in the adult group only if that child has Medicaid, CHIP or other minimum essential coverage.2,4 Whether a particular grandparent meets Arkansas's definition of a caretaker relative is a determination for the state, not something to assume from the chart: confirm it with Arkansas DHS before counting on it.7

The 65th birthday: when the 138% pathway closes

Arkansas has adopted the ACA Medicaid expansion, which it runs as ARHOME.2 That matters for a transition that arrives at 65.

The expansion adult group is written in federal law for individuals under 65 years of age, not pregnant, and not entitled to or enrolled in Medicare, at an effective ceiling of 138% FPL, and because it is a MAGI group it applies no asset test.4,3 That is 138% of the 2026 federal poverty guideline of $15,960 a year for one person in the 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia. (HHS publishes separate figures for Alaska and Hawaii.)8,4

On the 65th birthday that pathway closes, and the same person is generally assessed on the aged, blind, and disabled track instead, the track the statute expressly excepts from the no-asset-test rule.3 Two things can change at once. The income standard is no longer 138% FPL, because the MAGI rules stop applying, and a resource test can apply where none did before.3,5

The practical result is worth stating plainly. Someone covered through ARHOME with income near the 138% line and some savings should not assume their Medicaid simply carries on at 65: ask Arkansas DHS which aged, blind, and disabled standard applies, before the birthday. If nursing-home or waiver care is the need, the long-term-care rules below apply, including the $2,000 asset limit for a single applicant. Arkansas also runs a medically needy program for regular, non-long-term-care Medicaid.1 The same exclusion has a second trigger that has nothing to do with age, because the adult group also excludes anyone entitled to or enrolled in Medicare, so a person under 65 who reaches Medicare through disability leaves the group the same way.4

Everything that follows in this guide is that ABD track.

Arkansas Medicaid income limits in 2026: how the $2,982 cap works

A common assumption is that Arkansas Medicaid works like a spend-down state, where being over the income line is something you can fix by incurring medical bills. For long-term care, it does not.

The Arkansas Department of Human Services (DHS) Division of Medical Services, which runs Arkansas Medicaid, sets the 2026 income limit for nursing-facility and home- and community-based services (HCBS) waiver coverage at $2,982 a month in gross countable income, measured after VA Aid and Attendance and VA covered or uncovered medical expense (CME/UME) payments are left out. That figure is 300% of the 2026 Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Federal Benefit Rate of $994, the federal payment standard set by the Social Security Administration (SSA).1,9

Here is what makes Arkansas different from a medically needy spend-down state. In those states, being over the income line is not fatal: a person can become eligible by incurring medical expenses at least equal to the excess.10 Arkansas does not offer that pathway for long-term care. It is an income-cap state, meaning the $2,982 figure is a true cliff. An applicant with $2,983 in monthly countable income is, on paper, disqualified unless the excess goes through a Qualified Income Trust.1

(Arkansas does run a medically needy program, but only for regular, non-long-term-care Medicaid. It does not rescue an over-income nursing-home or waiver applicant.)1

The Miller Trust: the only way in when you're over the cap

For a senior whose Social Security and a pension push countable income past $2,982, Arkansas offers one route, and it is a legal one rather than a financial one: the Qualified Income Trust, commonly called a Miller Trust.1

A Miller Trust is a special trust that lets an over-cap applicant establish eligibility. Under DHS policy only the countable income above the cap must go in, not the whole income (VA Aid and Attendance and CME/UME are not counted), and DHS's income-trust fact sheet lists a caseworker line, 1-866-801-3435. That does not lower the resident's bill: Arkansas calculates what the resident owes the facility from all gross income, in the trust or not.1

Two practical points. First, the trust is funded month by month: DHS's income-trust fact sheet tells the trustee to deposit the countable income over the limit each month.1 Second, drafting the trust document is elder-law-attorney territory.

The mechanics are the same regardless of how far over the cap you are: the income that goes into the trust is what gets the applicant under $2,982, but the resident's share of the cost of care is still figured from all of their gross income.1

The asset limit: $2,000, and what "countable" means

Income is only half the test. To qualify for long-term-care Medicaid in Arkansas, a single applicant may hold no more than $2,000 in countable assets; for a couple, the limit is $3,000.1 Those are the same figures as the federal SSI resource limit.9

The word "countable" does most of the work here. Arkansas excludes the home (subject to an equity cap, below), one automobile per household, and household goods and personal effects. Burial money is only partly protected: Arkansas excludes $1,500 per spouse of burial funds plus a separate burial-space exclusion, and a prepaid burial contract counts or not depending on its terms. The $2,000 limit applies to what is left after those exclusions, not to the house someone lives in.1

The five-year look-back

Arkansas reviews asset transfers made in the 60 months before a long-term-care application.1,11 Giving away money or property for less than fair market value inside that window, signing a house over to a child for a dollar, gifting a grandchild a down payment, can trigger a penalty period during which Medicaid will not pay for long-term-care services, even though you are otherwise eligible.11

There are legitimate exceptions (transfers between spouses, transfers to a blind or disabled child, certain caregiver-child home transfers) and legitimate planning approaches, but anything done inside the five-year window deserves an elder-law attorney's review first.11 For the broader toolkit, see our guide to Medicaid planning strategies.

What a nursing-home resident keeps: a $40 allowance

When Arkansas Medicaid pays for nursing-facility care, most of the resident's monthly income goes toward the cost of care. What they keep is the Personal Needs Allowance (PNA), money reserved for the resident's own small expenses such as clothing, a haircut, or a phone. Arkansas sets its PNA at $40/month for most facility residents, or $30/month for a resident whose only income is SSI.1 The federal floor is $30 a month for an individual, so the $40 sits $10 above it and the SSI figure sits right at it.3

A resident keeps only that small allowance for personal use, but it is not the only deduction: federal rules also subtract allowances for a spouse or family at home and unpaid medical costs such as health-insurance premiums. What remains goes to the facility as the resident's share of cost, with Medicaid covering the gap.3 For the national picture on how the PNA is set and calculated, see our explainer on the Medicaid personal needs allowance.

Protecting the spouse who stays home

When one spouse needs long-term care and the other remains in the community, federal spousal-impoverishment rules keep the at-home spouse from being left destitute. Arkansas works from the 2026 federal standards:1,12

So a married couple is in a very different position from a single applicant. The community spouse can generally protect up to $162,660 in assets (more only through a hearing officer or a court order), far above the $2,000 limit on the applicant, and receive an income allowance of up to $4,066.50 a month (more only by court order) while the other spouse receives Medicaid-funded care.1,12

After death: estate recovery

Like every state, Arkansas runs a Medicaid estate-recovery program. After a recipient who was 55 or older and received long-term-care services dies, the state seeks repayment from the estate, but not until after the death of a surviving spouse, and not while there is a surviving child under 21 or a child who is blind or permanently and totally disabled. That is a delay rather than a permanent bar. Federal exceptions apply, and an undue-hardship waiver exists.1,13 For how estate recovery works and where families have room to plan, see our Medicaid estate recovery explainer.

How to apply in Arkansas

Arkansas Medicaid is administered by the Arkansas Department of Human Services (DHS) through its Division of Medical Services. For information about eligibility, DHS directs people to the Access Arkansas website, access.arkansas.gov, or to call Access Arkansas at 1-855-372-1084.14 DHS's Division of County Operations decides financial eligibility; its Office of Long Term Care decides medical eligibility for long-term-care placement and waiver services.15 An applicant for the ARChoices in Homecare waiver must also meet the intermediate level of care required for nursing home admission.14

If your countable income is over the $2,982 cap, talk to an elder-law attorney about a Qualified Income Trust early: Arkansas requires an over-cap applicant to establish one, and the trustee deposits the countable income over the limit each month.1

Learn More

Find personalized help working through the Arkansas Medicaid income cap and whether a Miller Trust fits your family at brevy.com.

The information on Brevy.com is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional legal, financial, or medical advice. Rules vary by state and program and change frequently. Always verify with the relevant agency or a qualified professional. Brevy is not a law firm, financial advisor, or healthcare provider.