Connecticut Medicaid Income Limits 2026: HUSKY and Long-Term Care

Connecticut Medicaid income limits come in two versions, and the one that applies to you turns mostly on age. Residents who are 65 or older, blind, or disabled are measured on the aged, blind, and disabled track, where Connecticut caps a single long-term-care applicant's countable assets at just $1,600, lower than the $2,000 default almost everywhere else.1 Everyone else (adults under 65, parents, pregnant residents, and children) is measured on the MAGI track, against a percentage of the federal poverty level, with no asset test at all.2

That $1,600 ceiling scares a lot of families off the long-term-care track. It shouldn't, because Connecticut also lets you spend down income you're "over" on, so a high monthly check is not the wall people assume it is.

This guide covers both tracks of what the state runs as HUSKY Health: the MAGI income limits by group, what changes on your 65th birthday, and then the long-term-care rules for aged, blind, and disabled residents: the low asset limit, the medically needy spend-down, what a nursing-home resident keeps, what a spouse at home is protected from, the five-year look-back, and how to apply.1

Which Connecticut Medicaid income limit applies to you?

Connecticut applies two different income tests. They share almost nothing: different yardsticks, different household rules, and only one of them has an asset limit.

• The MAGI track. For adults under 65 who are not disabled, parents and caretaker relatives, pregnant residents, and children. Income is counted as Modified Adjusted Gross Income and measured against a percentage of the federal poverty level. Federal law bars the state from applying any asset or resource test to these groups.2
• The aged, blind, and disabled (ABD) track. For residents 65 or older, blind, or disabled, including everyone seeking long-term-care coverage. Income is measured against the SSI-related standards, and countable assets are capped. This is the track the $1,600 limit belongs to, and the one the rest of this guide covers in detail.2

The household rules differ too. On the MAGI track, who counts as your household is set by federal income-tax filing relationships (your tax household) rather than by who lives under your roof, which is not the test the ABD groups use. So the same family can have two different household sizes depending on which pathway is being applied.3

Connecticut Medicaid income limits on the MAGI track: HUSKY A, B, and D

Connecticut runs its MAGI-based Medicaid and CHIP as HUSKY Health, administered by the Department of Social Services. The standards below took effect March 1, 2026.4

Two versions of each percentage circulate, exactly five points apart, and it is worth knowing why before you compare Connecticut's chart against a national one. Federal law applies a mandatory income disregard equal to 5 percentage points of the FPL, so each group has an actual income threshold (the dollar figure on Connecticut's own HUSKY chart) and a counted percentage five points lower, which is the figure the CMS national eligibility table publishes. HUSKY D is 133% counted and 138% actual: one rule, measured at two points.4,5 Compare your income to the dollar column; that is what DSS measures.4

Adults under 65: HUSKY D and the 138% ceiling

Connecticut has adopted the ACA Medicaid expansion, so it covers the "new adult group" in full.6 HUSKY D covers adults ages 19–64 without minor children at 138% FPL effective, under $22,025/year for a household of one.4 That 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.7,5 No asset test applies, so savings, a second car, and investments are irrelevant to a HUSKY D determination, the sharpest contrast with the $1,600 long-term-care limit below.2

Parents and caretaker relatives: a low federal floor Connecticut sits above

HUSKY A covers parents and caretaker relatives at 133% FPL counted, under $29,863/year for a household of two.4 One caution when you cross-check this number: Connecticut reduced this group from 155% to 133% FPL through 2024 legislation, and the CMS national table still lists the superseded 155% figure, so an out-of-state chart may show you a limit Connecticut no longer uses.4

Federal law sets a strikingly low floor for this group. Parents and caretaker relatives are a federally mandatory eligibility group, but unlike children (mandatory to 133% FPL) and the expansion adults (138% effective), states are only required to cover them at the state's old cash-welfare standard: the AFDC criteria in effect on July 16, 1996, converted to a MAGI equivalent and never re-indexed since.8 That frozen standard is why, in states that stopped at the federal minimum, a working parent can be over the Medicaid limit at an income well below poverty. Connecticut sits far above that floor at 133% FPL.4

This is the group that matters most to older readers of this guide. A grandparent raising a grandchild who is under 65 and not disabled would look to the parent/caretaker-relative group, not to the aged-or-disabled track, and a grandparent who is 65 or older, blind, or disabled is assessed on the ABD track described below. Whether a particular relative meets Connecticut's definition of a caretaker relative is a determination DSS makes, and it has real edges; confirm it with the DSS Benefits Center (contact details below) rather than assuming either answer.

Children, CHIP, and pregnancy coverage

Children through age 18 are covered by HUSKY A at 196% FPL, under $66,330/year for a household of four, or under $32,080 for a household of one.4 Above that band, Connecticut runs a separate CHIP program, HUSKY B, reaching 318% FPL, up to $51,551/year for a household of one.4 Federal law makes children's coverage mandatory only to 133% FPL, so Connecticut, like most states, covers children well above the required floor.9 Pregnant residents are covered by HUSKY A at 258% FPL, under $56,913/year for a household of two, counting the unborn child as a household member.4

What changes on your 65th birthday

Connecticut's expansion coverage carries an edge that almost no income-limit chart shows. The new adult group is written for people under 65 who are not pregnant and not entitled to or enrolled in Medicare.5 On the 65th birthday, that pathway closes.

Consider a 64-year-old Connecticut resident with about $1,600/month in income and modest savings. On HUSKY D they are covered without difficulty: the ceiling is roughly $1,835/month for one person, and no asset test applies.4,2 The day they turn 65, they are generally assessed on the SSI-related ABD track instead, and two things change at once:

• The income yardstick drops. It is no longer 138% FPL but the SSI Federal Benefit Rate, which is $994/month for an individual in 2026.10
• A resource test appears. MAGI groups are barred from applying one; the ABD track is expressly excepted from that bar.2 The SSI default standard is $2,000 for an individual, and Connecticut applies an even tighter $1,600 limit to a single long-term-care applicant.10,1

So the same person can be over both tests at 65 without a dollar of their income changing. The same cliff has a second trigger that has nothing to do with age: the new adult group also excludes anyone entitled to or enrolled in Medicare, so a person under 65 who reaches Medicare through disability leaves the 138%, no-asset-test group the same way.5

What softens the landing in Connecticut is the medically needy spend-down covered below: the state has no income cliff on the ABD side, so being over the income standard at 65 is not the end of the analysis. The asset test, though, is new, and it is real.

Connecticut Medicaid income limits for long-term care start with the $1,600 asset rule

In most states, a single aged or disabled applicant can hold up to $2,000 in countable assets and still qualify for long-term-care Medicaid. Connecticut sets the bar lower. A single applicant is limited to $1,600 in countable assets, below the common $2,000 federal default.1 That is one of the strictest single-person asset limits in the country, and it's the figure that most often catches Connecticut families by surprise.

"Countable" is the word doing the work. Connecticut, like every state, exempts a long list of assets from the count: your home, one vehicle, household goods and personal effects, and prepaid burial arrangements. So the $1,600 applies to things like bank balances, a second car, and investments, not the roof over your head or the car in the driveway.1

The home exemption has a ceiling. A long-term-care applicant's home is exempt only up to a home-equity limit, and Connecticut elects the higher federal tier of $1,130,000 for 2026.1,11 Equity above that line counts against eligibility for nursing-facility care, though the cap does not apply when a spouse, a child under 21, or a blind or disabled child lives in the home.

The low limit makes early planning matter more here than in a state with a $2,000 or higher ceiling.1 With only $1,600 of countable room, the gap between "over" and "under" is small, and it's easy to drift back over it. If long-term care is on the horizon for someone in your family, this is the number to plan around. For the broader toolkit, see our guide to Medicaid planning strategies.

How Connecticut Medicaid income limits work: the spend-down

Here is the part that trips people up, and the reason the low asset limit is less alarming than it looks. Connecticut is not an income-cap state. It runs a medically needy program with a spend-down, so being over the income line does not disqualify you.1

If your monthly income is above the state's medically needy income limit, the excess becomes your spend-down amount. Connecticut measures spend-down over a six-month period: once you have incurred at least that much in medical and care costs across those six months, Medicaid covers the rest.1 Income above the limit gets spent down on care, not handed back; you are never simply "too rich" for long-term-care Medicaid in Connecticut.

For an applicant who needs nursing-facility care, the math usually resolves quickly. Nursing-facility costs run thousands of dollars a month, far more than the typical gap between an applicant's income and the income limit, so the spend-down is met almost immediately and Medicaid pays the remaining covered cost of care.

This is why Connecticut does not require a Qualified Income Trust, also called a Miller Trust.1 In strict income-cap states, an applicant even a dollar over the limit is shut out unless they route the excess through a special trust. Connecticut has no such cliff. High income means a bigger spend-down, not a closed door.

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

When Connecticut Medicaid 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 set aside for the resident's own small expenses like clothing, a haircut, or a phone. Connecticut's PNA is $75/month, set by statute under Conn. Gen. Stat. section 17b-272 and in effect since July 1, 2021.12,13 The figure is fixed in statute rather than adjusted for inflation, so it has not changed since 2021. Connecticut sits well above the federal PNA floor of $30/month that every state must at least meet.13

Wartime veterans in a nursing facility receive a higher Connecticut PNA of $165/month under a longstanding statutory differential.12 Apart from that exception, the $75 is the resident's to use; everything above it, after deductions for a community spouse and certain health-insurance premiums such as Medicare coverage, goes toward care. 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 stays in the community, federal spousal-impoverishment rules keep the at-home spouse from being left with nothing. Connecticut applies the federal framework for 2026:1

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, far above the applicant's own $1,600 limit, and keep monthly income up to the MMMNA while the other spouse receives Medicaid-funded care.1 The exact MMMNA within that range depends on the at-home spouse's housing costs.

The five-year look-back

Connecticut reviews asset transfers made in the 60 months before a long-term-care application.1,14 Giving away money or property for less than fair market value during that window, gifting a grandchild a down payment, signing a house over to a child for a dollar, can trigger a penalty period during which Medicaid won't pay for long-term-care services, even though you're otherwise eligible.

There are legitimate exceptions, such as transfers between spouses, transfers to a disabled child, and certain caregiver-child home transfers, along with legitimate planning approaches. But anything done inside the five-year window deserves an elder-law attorney's review first. If care is on the horizon, talk to a professional before moving assets.

Will Connecticut recover from your estate?

Like every state, Connecticut runs a Medicaid estate-recovery program, administered by the Connecticut Department of Social Services. After a recipient who was 55 or older when they received long-term-care services dies, the state seeks repayment from the estate for the cost of that care.1,15

Federal law builds in protections Connecticut must honor. Recovery cannot happen while a surviving spouse is alive, and it is barred while there is a surviving child who is under 21 or who is blind or permanently and totally disabled.15 Connecticut, like every state, must also offer a way to apply for an undue-hardship waiver when recovery would deprive an heir of necessary support; in practice you request that waiver through the DSS recovery process after a claim is filed against the estate.1 For how estate recovery works and where families have room to plan, see our Medicaid estate recovery explainer.

How to apply in Connecticut

Connecticut Medicaid is run by the Connecticut Department of Social Services (DSS).1 You have three ways to apply:

Long-term-care applicants also go through a level-of-care screening to confirm they need nursing-facility-level services. Apply even if you think you're over the asset or income limit. Between the spend-down and the spousal protections, many people who assume they're disqualified are not.

Learn More

Find personalized help working through Connecticut Medicaid eligibility 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.