What Counts as an Asset for Medicaid? Countable vs. Exempt (2026)

For a single older adult, the Medicaid asset limit is commonly about $2,000, but only countable assets are measured against it, so a home and one car don't by themselves put an applicant over.1 In most states, what counts as an asset for Medicaid follows the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) resource rules, which exclude the home you live in, one car used for transportation, household goods and personal effects, burial funds of up to $1,500 each for you and your spouse, and life insurance with a combined face value of $1,500 or less, each under its own condition.1

In This Guide

• Countable vs. Exempt Assets at a Glance
• Where the Medicaid Asset Limit Comes From
• Does Medicaid Count Your House as an Asset?
• Does a Car Count as an Asset for Medicaid?
• Life Insurance, Burial Funds and Household Goods
• Married Couples and MAGI Groups
• Can You Turn Countable Assets Into Exempt Ones?
• Your State May Differ: Your Next Steps
• Frequently Asked Questions

Countable vs. Exempt Assets at a Glance

The table sorts everyday assets under the federal SSI rules. Those rules are the federal baseline for aged, blind and disabled Medicaid, not automatically every state's rule.7 The Social Security Administration (SSA) publishes its own list of resources that don't count, and that list is longer than this table, so don't total your assets against it and conclude you're over the limit.1 Beyond its main list of nine exclusions, SSA lists further exclusions under a second heading, so even its own list isn't closed.1

Where the Medicaid Asset Limit Comes From

The SSI resource limit is $2,000 for an individual and $3,000 for a couple, and it hasn't changed since January 1, 1989, under 20 CFR 416.1205.1 Unlike SSI payment amounts, the resource limits aren't adjusted for inflation, so they don't rise with the annual cost-of-living adjustment.1

Medicaid ties into those rules through federal regulation. 42 CFR 435.601 requires a state determining financial eligibility for aged, blind and disabled groups to apply the SSI income and resource methodologies, subject to state options that can make them more or less restrictive, which is why a single applicant for nursing home Medicaid commonly faces a countable-asset limit of about $2,000.1,7

Why your state's limit may be different

States connect Medicaid to SSI in three ways, and the structure decides how closely a state follows the SSI rules.6

A 209(b) state's requirements can be no more restrictive than its Medicaid plan in effect on January 1, 1972.6

States can also go the other way. Federal rules let a state use resource methodologies less restrictive than SSI's, and some states have raised or eliminated the asset limit.1 California's Medi-Cal, for example, now applies a reinstated asset limit of $130,000 for one person (see California's asset limits).3

Does Medicaid Count Your House as an Asset?

Under the SSI rules, the home you live in, and the land it's on, is excluded regardless of its value.2,1 Two things can change that for a Medicaid applicant: moving out of the home, and, for long-term care, the federal home equity limit.

Moving into a nursing home: the intent to return

A home stays excluded under SSI rules while its owner is away if the owner intends to return. The owner's own statement of intent governs unless the statement is self-contradictory, and for a mentally competent person SSA doesn't weigh other factors such as age or physical condition.2

A separate exception keeps the home excluded, whatever the owner's intent, while a spouse or dependent relative continues to live there. The SSI exception for a home where a spouse or dependent relative still lives is written for someone who leaves to live in an institution, so it doesn't cover a parent who moves permanently into an adult child's home.2

If the owner moves out with no intent to return and no other exclusion applies, the home becomes a countable resource, and its equity counts from the first day of the month after the month it stopped being the owner's principal residence. Whether a particular state's Medicaid treats a vacated home exactly as SSI does has to be checked with that state.2 Keeping a home exempt at application is a different question from what Medicaid can recover from an estate later, which our estate recovery guide covers.

The home equity limit for long-term care

For nursing facility services and other long-term care, federal law at 42 USC 1396p adds a cap on home equity. In 2026, an applicant whose equity interest in the home exceeds $752,000 isn't eligible for long-term care assistance, and a state may substitute a higher limit of up to $1,130,000. The $752,000 home equity limit and the $1,130,000 state maximum are both increased each year based on the Consumer Price Index.3

The equity limit doesn't apply at all when the applicant's spouse, child under 21, or child of any age who is blind or permanently and totally disabled is lawfully living in the home.4 For an applicant without such a relative at home, the statute keeps two routes open: a reverse mortgage or home equity loan can reduce the equity interest, and the limit can be waived in a case of demonstrated hardship.4,3

What changes in 2028

H.R. 1, signed July 4, 2025, changes the home equity limit for long-term care. Beginning January 1, 2028, the long-term care home equity limit is capped at $1,000,000 for any home not on a lot zoned for agricultural use, and that $1,000,000 ceiling isn't raised for inflation. The spouse and child exception, the reverse mortgage and home equity loan route, and the hardship waiver are untouched by the change.8 Our guide to Medicaid's OBBBA changes covers the law's other Medicaid provisions.

Does a Car Count as an Asset for Medicaid?

Under the SSI rules, one automobile per household is excluded regardless of its value if it's used for transportation of the applicant or a member of the household. That test covers a car the applicant is driven in by someone else, and SSA instructs its staff to assume someone in the household uses the car unless there's evidence to the contrary.5

A car that isn't used for transportation counts at its equity value, meaning the price it could sell for in the local market minus anything owed on it, unless another exclusion applies. Any car beyond the one excluded counts at its equity value too. A temporarily inoperable car stays excluded if the owner says it will be used for transportation within 12 calendar months after the month of the decision.5

These are SSI rules, so confirm how your state's Medicaid program counts a vehicle before selling or buying one.

Life Insurance, Burial Funds and Household Goods

Life insurance counts at its cash surrender value, except when the total face value of all policies on any one person is $1,500 or less. In that case none of the cash surrender value counts. Term insurance and burial insurance aren't added in when figuring that face value.7 Once the face value of the counted policies passes $1,500, their combined cash surrender value counts as a resource.1 If the policy came from the VA, our guide to VA life insurance for older veterans explains which kind you hold.

Burial funds of up to $1,500 each for the applicant and a spouse are excluded, but only if the money is kept separate from other resources and clearly designated for burial expenses.7 If excluded burial funds are mixed with money not meant for burial, the exclusion applies to none of the funds, so burial money kept in the same account as everyday savings loses its exclusion.1 The two $1,500 exclusions don't simply stack. Each person's burial-fund exclusion is reduced by the face value of life insurance whose cash surrender value is already excluded, and by amounts in an irrevocable burial trust or arrangement. SSA's operating manual also reduces it by the face value of any burial insurance policy, even though burial insurance isn't counted in the life insurance face-value total. Both $1,500 figures are fixed amounts that aren't indexed for inflation.1

Burial spaces for you or your immediate family are a separate exclusion from burial funds.1

Household goods and personal effects are on SSA's list of resources that don't count, as is property you or your spouse use in a trade or business or on your job.1

Married Couples and MAGI Groups

When one spouse needs nursing home care

When one spouse needs long-term care and the other stays at home, the federal spousal impoverishment rules in 42 USC 1396r-5 set resource standards for the at-home spouse. For 2026, the federal minimum resource standard for the at-home (community) spouse is $32,532 and the maximum is $162,660, and each state elects its standard within that range. Those figures don't cap the Community Spouse Resource Allowance (CSRA) itself: an amount set through a fair hearing or a court order can lawfully exceed $162,660.9 Our spousal impoverishment guide walks through how the CSRA is calculated.

MAGI groups have no asset test

Medicaid for the adult expansion group, children, pregnant women, and parents and caretaker relatives is based on Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI), and federal law bars states from applying any asset or resource test to those groups.10

The MAGI rules don't apply to several groups, among them people age 65 or older when age is a condition of eligibility, people whose eligibility is being determined on the basis of blindness or disability, and people requesting long-term care services and supports. For them, the agency uses the financial methods in 42 CFR 435.601 and 435.602 instead. The blindness and disability exception applies only when eligibility is being determined on that basis, and being disabled or over 65 doesn't by itself move a person out of MAGI, so someone who qualifies through a MAGI group is still judged under MAGI, with no asset test.10

Can You Turn Countable Assets Into Exempt Ones?

Some ways of restructuring assets are written into federal law, and each comes with conditions a family can fail. Because a misstep can cost months of nursing home coverage, it's worth having an elder law attorney review a plan before any money moves.

Paying fair market value, and the look-back

Medicaid's transfer-of-assets penalty is triggered only by a disposal of assets for less than fair market value. Selling or transferring an asset and receiving fair value back doesn't create a penalty period.4

Transfers for less than fair market value are reviewed over a 60-month look-back that runs backward from the Medicaid application, not from the transfer. Unless an exception applies, a transfer caught by the look-back produces a penalty period, calculated by dividing the total uncompensated value by the state's average monthly private-pay cost of nursing facility care. During the penalty, Medicaid won't pay for nursing facility care, an equivalent institutional level of care, or waiver-funded home and community-based services; the rest of the person's Medicaid coverage isn't withdrawn by this rule.3 California departs from the 60-month rule: from January 1, 2026, Medi-Cal applies a 30-month look-back for nursing facility care, counting only transfers made on or after that date.3 Our look-back guide covers the exceptions and penalty math in full.

Medicaid-compliant annuities

An annuity bought by a long-term care applicant or spouse is treated as an asset for transfer purposes unless it's a retirement-type annuity, or it meets every one of these federal tests: it's irrevocable and nonassignable, it's actuarially sound under the actuarial publications of SSA's Office of the Chief Actuary, and it pays equal amounts during its term with no deferral and no balloon payments.4

Separately, buying an annuity is treated as a transfer for less than fair market value unless the State is named remainder beneficiary, either in first position for at least the medical assistance paid, or in second position after a community spouse or a minor or disabled child, moving to first position if that spouse or a child's representative disposes of the remainder for less than fair market value. Every annuity interest must also be disclosed on the application, and states add requirements of their own, so the federal tests are a floor.4 Our guide to using an annuity to pay for senior care covers the income side.

Special needs trusts: (d)(4)(A) and (d)(4)(C)

A first-party special needs trust under 42 USC 1396p(d)(4)(A) is exempt from Medicaid's trust-counting rules and from the transfer penalty, but only if it's set up for an individual under 65 who is disabled. The State must be repaid from what's left in the trust at the person's death, up to the total medical assistance it paid. The exception doesn't apply to a trust established for someone 65 or older. A trust set up before 65 keeps qualifying after the person turns 65, though additions made after 65 don't qualify.4

A pooled trust under 42 USC 1396p(d)(4)(C) is established and managed by a nonprofit association that keeps a separate account for each disabled beneficiary. The statute sets no age cap, but SSA warns that a transfer of resources into the trust for someone 65 or over may result in a transfer penalty.4 For either kind of trust, meeting the exception isn't the end of the review: for SSI purposes, the trust must still be evaluated to decide whether it's a countable resource.4 Our guide to special needs trusts and pooled trusts for Medicaid covers both in depth.

Your State May Differ: Your Next Steps

Everything above is the federal baseline. Before deciding an asset has to go, work through these steps.

Learn More

Find personalized help sorting your family's countable and exempt assets for Medicaid 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.