Colorado Medicaid Income Limits 2026: Eligibility & Assets

Colorado Medicaid income limits come in two versions, and which one applies depends on the group you qualify through and the care you need. For the MAGI groups, the test is set as a percentage of the federal poverty level with no asset limit at all: 138% FPL for adults ages 19 through 64 who are not on Medicare. If your eligibility instead turns on being 65 or older, blind, or disabled, or you are requesting long-term care, different non-MAGI financial rules apply for that purpose.1,2 For the nursing-home and in-home care those rules govern, the test is a hard income ceiling of $2,982/month, above which an applicant must route the excess through an income trust to qualify, plus a $2,000 asset limit.3

Health First Colorado is the state's Medicaid program. On its long-term-care side, the income cap is what sets Colorado apart from a spend-down state.3

In This Guide

• Which income limit applies to you (MAGI vs. long-term care)
• How the income cap works
• The Colorado income trust (Miller Trust)
• The asset limit
• What a nursing-home resident keeps
• Protecting the spouse who stays home
• After death: estate recovery
• How to apply in Colorado
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Learn More

Which Colorado Medicaid income limit applies to you

Colorado runs two different Medicaid income tests, and they produce very different numbers. The $2,982 figure above is the long-term-care limit. It belongs to the SSI-related aged, blind, and disabled (ABD) track, the pathway for nursing-facility and waiver coverage, and it is the test the rest of this guide covers in depth. The other track is MAGI (Modified Adjusted Gross Income), the test for the groups that are not based on age, blindness, or disability. Being disabled, or being 65 or older, does not by itself take a person off MAGI for every purpose: someone evaluated for a MAGI group is still assessed under MAGI for that group, with no asset test. The MAGI groups are expansion adults, children, pregnant women, and parents/caretaker relatives, each with its own percentage of the poverty level. The headline 138% figure belongs to the expansion adult group specifically, which covers people under 65 who are not pregnant and not on Medicare.1,2

Two rules separate the tracks:

• The MAGI test has no asset limit. Federal law bars a state from applying any asset or resource test to the MAGI groups: expansion adults, children, pregnant women, and parents/caretaker relatives. The $2,000 asset limit further down this page is the long-term-care test; the statute expressly excepts long-term-care applicants, and people assessed because of age, blindness, or disability, from the no-asset-test rule.1,3
• The MAGI limits are set as a percentage of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL), not as a multiple of the SSI benefit rate. HCPF publishes the matching monthly dollar thresholds and refreshes them each April with the new FPL.8

Health First Colorado MAGI income limits by group

Two figures circulate for the adult group, and both are correct. HCPF's own MAGI income chart and the CMS national eligibility table each list Colorado's adults at 133% FPL, which is the statutory base. Federal law then applies a mandatory income disregard of 5 percentage points of FPL, lifting the effective ceiling to 138% FPL. The two numbers describe the same rule measured at different points, not a discrepancy between the state and federal tables.8,2

On the children's line, Colorado covers above the federal floor: states must cover children under 19 to at least 133% FPL, and Colorado sets 142% for every age band, with CHP+ picking up children to 260%.9,8

Parents and caretaker relatives: 68% FPL, and why it is that low

At 68% FPL, the parent and caretaker-relative limit is the lowest MAGI threshold Colorado applies: well under the poverty line, and less than half the ceiling for expansion adults.8 That traces back to federal law. Parents and other caretaker relatives are a federally mandatory Medicaid group, but their mandatory coverage is pegged to the state's old cash-welfare (AFDC) standard rather than to a percentage of the poverty level: under 42 CFR 435.110, the minimum income standard is the state's AFDC income standard in effect on May 1, 1988, converted to a MAGI equivalent, and the most a state may set is capped by its own earlier effective levels or its July 16, 1996 AFDC standard raised by no more than inflation. Because the group is anchored to those old welfare standards rather than to the poverty line, the threshold sits far below the limits for children and expansion adults.10

This is the group an older Coloradan raising a grandchild would look to, and it is worth knowing before you assume the household is covered: the grandchild may qualify at 142% FPL while the grandparent raising them does not qualify at 68%.8 Whether a particular relative meets the caretaker-relative definition is a determination HCPF makes, so confirm it with the state rather than assume. For a grandparent under 65 who is not enrolled in Medicare, the expansion adult group at 138% FPL is the wider door of the two, with one condition: a caretaker relative living with a dependent child can be covered in that group only if the child is enrolled in Medicaid, CHIP, or other minimum essential coverage.2

The 65th birthday: when the 138% door closes

Colorado has adopted the ACA Medicaid expansion, one of the 41 states including the District of Columbia that took it up, so its new adult group is in full force.8 That group is written narrowly. It covers individuals under 65, not pregnant, and not entitled to or enrolled in Medicare, with income up to an effective 138% FPL and no asset test.2,1 For one person in 2026 that ceiling works out to roughly $1,835/month, which is 138% of the $15,960/year federal poverty guideline for one person in the 48 contiguous states and DC (Alaska and Hawaii have separate figures). HCPF's own monthly chart, not a paycheck comparison, is the number to check.4,8,2

On the 65th birthday that pathway closes. Unless the person fits another MAGI group, such as parents and caretaker relatives, eligibility based on age is then assessed under the non-MAGI financial rules.2,1 For nursing-facility and waiver care, two things change at once:

• The income test changes from 138% FPL to the $2,982/month cap, which is 300% of the 2026 SSI Federal Benefit Rate of $994/month for an individual.5,3
• A resource test appears where none applied before: $2,000 for a single person in Colorado long-term care, matching the SSI limit.3,5,1

So a 64-year-old covered at $1,600/month with modest savings can lose that coverage at 65 without a dollar of income changing. The cliff has a second trigger that has nothing to do with age: because the new adult group also excludes anyone entitled to or enrolled in Medicare, someone under 65 who reaches Medicare through disability leaves the group the same way.2 Either way, if that person then needs nursing-facility or waiver coverage, the $2,982 cap below is the test.3

How the Colorado Medicaid income limits work: the income cap

Health First Colorado is run by the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (HCPF). For long-term care, the program sets a single monthly income limit of $2,982, equal to 300% of the 2026 SSI Federal Benefit Rate of $994.3,5 This number governs both nursing-facility coverage and the home-and-community-based services (HCBS) waivers that pay for care at home and in the community.3

Colorado is an income-cap state, not a spend-down state. In a spend-down state, someone whose income is above the medically needy income standard can still become eligible by incurring medical bills at least equal to the difference, so income alone is not a hard ceiling.11 Colorado has a ceiling. If your gross monthly income is even one dollar over $2,982, you are over the limit, and you cannot buy your way under it by spending the excess on care.3

What you can do instead is set up an income trust.

The Colorado income trust (Miller Trust) for over-income applicants

When an applicant's gross income exceeds the $2,982 cap, Colorado lets them qualify through an irrevocable income trust (Colorado's term for a Qualified Income Trust, also called a Miller Trust), provided that income is below the average private-pay nursing-facility rate for their region.3 The mechanism is narrow and specific:

• A trust document is drafted and a dedicated trust bank account is opened.6
• Each month, the income that pushes the applicant over the cap is deposited into the trust account.3
• The trustee submits the trust documents to HCPF, and each month's deposit is paid out under strict rules: the personal needs allowance and any community-spouse income allowance come out first, and the rest goes toward the cost of care.6,12
• When the trust ends, HCPF is paid whatever remains in it, up to the total Medicaid paid on the member's behalf.3

So an applicant whose gross income runs $300 over the cap deposits that $300 into the trust account every month, not just once. An elder-law attorney can draft the trust. The trust is the only path for an over-income applicant in Colorado; there is no spend-down alternative for long-term care.3

The asset limit: $2,000 for one, $3,000 for a couple

Income is only half the test. HCPF limits a long-term-care applicant to countable resources under $2,000 for a single person or $3,000 for a couple, but the couple figure is not the test when one spouse stays home; the spousal rules below cover that case.3

What "countable" excludes matters as much as the limit itself. Colorado excludes the home up to a 2026 home-equity maximum of $1,130,000,3 and the SSI rules behind the $2,000 figure also leave out one vehicle used for transportation and household goods and personal effects.5 So do not assume the home alone puts a parent over the limit. Sorting countable from exempt before filing is worth a professional's review. For the broader toolkit, see our guide to Medicaid planning strategies.3

The five-year look-back

Colorado applies the federal 60-month look-back: HCPF reviews uncompensated asset transfers made in the five years before a long-term-care application.3,13 A transfer for less than fair market value inside that window, gifting a grandchild a down payment or signing a house over to a child for a dollar, can trigger a penalty period: a stretch of time during which Health First Colorado will not pay for nursing-facility or waiver services even though the applicant is otherwise eligible. The rest of their Medicaid coverage is not withdrawn. The penalty length is the total uncompensated value transferred divided by Colorado's average monthly private-pay nursing-facility cost.13

Paying a family caregiver. In Colorado, pay under a personal services agreement signed and notarized on or after March 1, 2007 counts as a transfer without fair consideration unless every requirement is met. The agreement must be written, signed and notarized before any paid service; signed by the applicant or a legally authorized representative who is not a beneficiary of it, so a child holding a parent's power of attorney cannot sign one that pays that child; and specific about the type, frequency and time of the services. Pay must come at least monthly while services are given, at open-market rates the applicant must prove, with a log of services actually given that no one else is paid or responsible to provide. Paying later for care already given always counts as a transfer. See our guide to personal care agreements.14

There are legitimate exceptions (transfers between spouses, transfers to a disabled child, certain caregiver-child home transfers) and legitimate planning approaches,13 but anything done inside the five-year window deserves an elder-law attorney's review first. If long-term care is on the horizon for someone in your family, talk to a professional before moving assets.

Long-term care: what a nursing-home resident keeps

When Health First Colorado pays for nursing-facility care, the resident contributes their monthly income toward the cost of that care, minus a few protected allowances.1 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. Colorado sets its PNA at $110.36/month for a resident who is not a veteran or a veteran's widow(er), well above the federal floor of $30.3,1 A different, lower figure applies to veterans: a veteran in a long-term-care institution with no spouse or dependent child who receives a VA non-service-connected disability pension keeps $90 a month, as does a veteran's widow(er) with no dependent children.3

For a resident who used an income trust to qualify, the income flow is sequenced: the trustee pays out the whole month's deposit, with the personal needs allowance, any community-spouse income allowance, and other approved adjustments (certain Medicare premiums among them) coming out first and the remainder going to the facility toward the cost of care.12 (For the national picture on the PNA and how it's 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. Colorado's 2026 resource maximum is $162,660, and the income figures are the federal standards CMS sets for 2026:3,7

So a married couple is in a very different position from a single applicant. The community spouse can ordinarily hold the couple's countable assets up to $162,660, and income paid in her name alone stays hers, with no ceiling.3,7 These allowances also shape how an income trust is administered, since the community-spouse income allowance is one of the few things trust funds may be spent on. For a full walkthrough of how these protections work and how the at-home spouse is shielded, see our guide to Colorado Medicaid spousal impoverishment rules.

After death: estate recovery

Like every state, Colorado runs a Medicaid estate-recovery program. After a recipient who was 55 or older and received long-term-care services dies, the state must seek repayment from the estate, unless the recipient is survived by a spouse, a child under 21, or a blind or disabled child of any age.3,15 Federal exceptions apply, and an undue-hardship waiver exists. For how estate recovery works and where families have room to plan, see our Medicaid estate recovery explainer.

How to apply in Colorado

Health First Colorado is administered by HCPF. HCPF's application page gives two routes: apply online through Colorado PEAK, or fill out a paper application and mail it in or drop it off at your county office or a local application assistance site.3

Being under the income cap is not by itself a route into an HCBS waiver: a waiver applicant must also need the level of care a nursing facility provides.5 If you expect to be over the income cap, line up the income trust early, because HCPF reviews the trust documents and verification of the dedicated trust bank account as part of the eligibility determination.6 Apply even if the numbers look tight: the income trust and the spousal protections exist for exactly that situation.

Learn More

Find personalized help working through Colorado Medicaid eligibility and the income trust for 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.