Colorado Medicaid Income Limits 2026: Eligibility & Assets

Colorado Medicaid income limits come in two versions, and which one applies depends on your age and the care you need. If you are under 65 and not disabled, the test is MAGI, set as a percentage of the federal poverty level with no asset limit at all: 138% FPL for adults ages 19 to 65. If you are 65 or older or disabled, you are assessed instead on the SSI-related track, which does apply an asset limit. For the nursing-home and in-home care that track pays for, a much harder rule governs: a hard income ceiling of $2,982/month, above which an applicant must route the excess through an income trust to qualify.1,2

This guide covers both tests for Health First Colorado, the state's Medicaid program: the MAGI limits by group, the income cap, the income trust an over-income applicant must set up, the $2,000 asset limit, what a nursing-home resident keeps, and what a spouse at home is protected from. Its depth is on the long-term-care side, because that is where the rules trip families up, starting with the income cap, which is what makes Colorado different 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. Most people searching for Colorado Medicaid income limits are on the other track: MAGI (Modified Adjusted Gross Income), the test for everyone who is not aged, blind, or disabled. 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 applies only to the ABD and long-term-care pathways, which the statute expressly excepts from the no-asset-test rule.1
• 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.6

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.6,2

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%.7,6

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.6 That is a federal inheritance rather than a Colorado choice. Parents and other caretaker relatives are a federally mandatory Medicaid group, but they are covered only at the state's old cash-welfare standard: 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 statute ties the group to the state's pre-welfare-reform AFDC criteria as of July 16, 1996. Those standards were frozen and never re-indexed, which is why the threshold sits so far below the limits for children and expansion adults.8

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%.6 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.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.9 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 run on separate, higher guidelines.4,2

On the 65th birthday that pathway closes, and the same person is assessed on the SSI-related ABD track instead. Two things change at once:

• The income yardstick drops from 138% FPL to the SSI Federal Benefit Rate, $994/month for an individual in 2026.5
• A resource test appears where none applied before, defaulting to the SSI standard of $2,000 for an individual.5,1

So a 64-year-old covered at $1,600/month with modest savings can be over both tests 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 route lands the person on the ABD track, where the SSI benefit rate is the yardstick for regular coverage and the $2,982 cap below governs nursing-facility and waiver coverage. If that is the transition your family is facing, the rest of this guide is the track you are now on.

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 or in assisted living.

Here is the part that catches families off guard. Colorado is an income-cap state, not a spend-down state. In a spend-down state, income above the limit simply becomes an amount you have to incur in medical bills before coverage starts, so there's no hard ceiling. 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 by establishing an income trust, the state's term for what federal law calls a Qualified Income Trust and most elder-law attorneys call a Miller Trust.3 The mechanism is narrow and specific:

• A trust document is drafted and a dedicated trust bank account is opened.
• Each month, the income that pushes the applicant over the cap is deposited into the trust account.
• The trust is submitted to HCPF as part of the application, and the trust funds are spent under strict rules (toward the cost of care, the personal needs allowance, and a community spouse's allowance), with the state named as remainder beneficiary up to the amount Medicaid paid.

Because every dollar above the cap has to flow through the trust each month, the trust isn't a one-time filing. It's an ongoing administrative job, and getting the deposits wrong can break eligibility for that month. So an applicant whose gross income runs $300 over the cap deposits that $300 into the trust account every month the application is open, not just once. Most families set one up with an elder-law attorney. 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. A single long-term-care applicant in Colorado is limited to $2,000 in countable assets; a married couple with both spouses applying is limited to $3,000.3

What "countable" excludes is the part that decides most Colorado applications. Health First Colorado does not count the home (subject to a federal equity cap), one vehicle, household goods and personal effects, or prepaid burial arrangements. The $2,000 ceiling applies to liquid and non-exempt holdings: bank balances, a second vehicle, brokerage and retirement accounts. A family that assumes the home pushes them over the limit is usually wrong, and that misread is where many otherwise-eligible Colorado applicants either give up too early or spend down assets they could have kept. 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.3,10 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 long-term-care services even though the applicant is otherwise eligible. The penalty length is the transferred value divided by Colorado's average monthly private-pay nursing-facility cost.

There are legitimate exceptions (transfers between spouses, transfers to a 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. 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 almost all of their monthly income toward the cost of that 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. Colorado sets its PNA at $110.36/month, well above the federal floor of $30.3,11

For a resident who used an income trust to qualify, the income flow is sequenced: the trust pays out the personal needs allowance, any community-spouse allowance, and health-insurance premiums (including any Medicare premium the resident owes) first, with the remainder going to the facility as the resident's share of cost. (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 applies the federal maximums for 2026:3

So a married couple is in a very different position from a single applicant. The community spouse can hold up to $162,660 in assets and keep monthly income up to $4,066.50 while the other spouse receives Medicaid-funded care.3 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 may seek repayment from the estate, unless the recipient is survived by a spouse or a minor, blind, or disabled child.3,12 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, and applications run through the counties. You have three ways to apply: online, in person, or by phone.

Long-term-care applicants also go through a functional (level-of-care) assessment to confirm they need nursing-facility-level services. If you expect to be over the income cap, line up the income trust early; an application can stall while the trust is being drafted and the first deposit made. Apply even if the numbers look tight, because between the income trust and the spousal protections, many people who assume they're disqualified are not.

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.