The Mississippi Medicaid income limits that apply to you depend on why you need coverage. For an aged, blind, or disabled person seeking nursing-facility or HCBS waiver coverage, Medicaid in Mississippi compares a single applicant's total income with a limit of $2,982 a month in 2026. An applicant whose income is at or above that line must qualify through an income trust instead, and countable assets must stay at or below $4,000, twice the $2,000 SSI resource limit., For children, pregnant women, and parents or caretaker relatives, a separate MAGI test applies instead, measured against the poverty level (for parents, through a dollar standard), with no asset test at all.,

In This Guide

Mississippi Medicaid income limits under MAGI: a separate income test

The $2,982 figure above is the income limit for aged, blind, or disabled (ABD) people seeking nursing-facility or HCBS waiver coverage.

A separate test is MAGI, or Modified Adjusted Gross Income. It applies to children, pregnant women, and parents or other caretaker relatives, and for most of those groups it is written as a percentage of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) rather than as a flat dollar cap.,

Coverage group Income limit (CMS table)
Children ages 0-1 194% FPL
Children ages 1-5 143% FPL
Children ages 6-18 133% FPL
Separate Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) 209% FPL
Pregnant women 194% FPL
Parents and caretaker relatives of a dependent child under 18 A dollar amount set by household size; CMS converts it to at most 19% FPL (see below)
Non-disabled, non-pregnant adults without dependent children No expansion coverage (Mississippi has not adopted the ACA expansion); one limited-benefit pathway is the Family Planning Waiver (see below)

These are the figures CMS's national Medicaid and CHIP eligibility-levels table lists for Mississippi, reflecting state decisions as of December 1, 2023. CMS notes that the MAGI rules generally adjust a person's income by an amount equivalent to a 5% FPL disregard. Mississippi's Administrative Code writes some underlying standards differently (185% FPL for infants, 200% for CHIP, each converted to a MAGI-equivalent standard), so ask the Division which dollar figure applies to you.

To convert a percentage into dollars, start from the 2026 federal poverty guideline: HHS publishes it as an annual figure, and 100% FPL is $15,960 a year for a household of one in the 48 contiguous states and DC, roughly $1,330 a month divided by twelve, rising with household size. Medicaid measures income under its own rules, not as a raw paycheck figure. The Division applies the percentage to your household size, and under MAGI that household is generally built from federal tax-filing relationships rather than from who lives under the roof (non-filer rules, which look at who lives with you, apply in some cases). Which people, and whose income, get counted can therefore differ from the ABD rules used in the long-term-care sections of this page.

Parents and caretaker relatives: a pathway before 65

This is one pathway to check before 65. A grandparent raising a grandchild could look to the parent-and-caretaker-relative group, which Mississippi's rule defines as parents and caretaker relatives of a dependent child under age 18. Confirm with the Division of Medicaid whether a particular grandparent meets the state's definition of a caretaker relative.

Mississippi does not state this group as a percentage of poverty at all. Where the children's and pregnancy groups get a %-FPL level, parents and caretaker relatives must have income below a dollar standard set by household size. CMS converts that standard to a percentage of the poverty level and shows the highest result, 19% FPL, so for many household sizes the real limit sits below 19%. Ask the Division for your household's standard before ruling yourself in or out.

The reason it can sit that low is how federal law pegs this group. Unlike children (whose mandatory floor is 133% FPL, higher for infants in some states), parents and caretaker relatives are tied to the state's old cash-welfare (AFDC) income standard: federal rules set a floor, the state's AFDC standard as of May 1, 1988 converted to a MAGI equivalent, and a ceiling, and each state sets its own standard between them. In Mississippi, which has not adopted the expansion, that state-set standard, not a poverty percentage, is the income limit a parent or caretaker relative is measured against.,

No expansion coverage for adults without dependent children

The Affordable Care Act created a Medicaid "new adult group" for people ages 19 through 64 who are not pregnant and not entitled to or enrolled in Medicare, with an effective income ceiling of 138% of the poverty level.

Mississippi did not adopt it, so there is no expansion-group Medicaid here for a non-disabled, non-pregnant adult without dependent children. A limited-benefit MAGI pathway does stay open to them: the Section 1115 Family Planning Waiver, which covers women of child-bearing age (and, since 2015, men) with family income at or below 185% FPL, converted to a MAGI-equivalent standard, who are not otherwise eligible for Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP or other health insurance covering family planning, within age and income limits the Division sets. Mississippi is one of ten states that have not adopted the expansion, and in nine of those ten, Mississippi among them, adults with income below the poverty level can fall into the coverage gap: too much income for Medicaid, too little for Marketplace premium subsidies.

The MAGI groups have no asset test

Federal law bars a state from applying any asset or resource test to the MAGI groups. A parent or caretaker relative in Mississippi evaluated for a MAGI group faces no asset test: a savings account, a second vehicle, or an investment does not count against them at any amount. The $4,000 limit described below does not apply when they are evaluated for a MAGI group.

That is not a Mississippi choice either. The statute writes the no-asset-test rule for the MAGI groups and then excepts, among others, people evaluated on the basis of age 65 or older, blindness, or disability, and people requesting long-term care services, which is why an asset test can apply to the long-term-care numbers at the top of this page but not to the groups in this section. Several of those exceptions are purpose-limited: being 65 or disabled does not by itself move a person out of MAGI when they are evaluated for a MAGI group.

What changes at 65 in Mississippi

In states that adopted the expansion, turning 65 closes the 138% FPL adult pathway, which is limited to people under 65. Mississippi has no such pathway to lose.,

The transition here runs the other way: at 65, age itself can be the basis for an evaluation under the aged, blind, and disabled rules instead of MAGI.

That track runs on its own arithmetic. For nursing-facility and waiver coverage the income test is no longer a percentage of poverty: Mississippi's limit is $2,982/month, 300% of the 2026 SSI Federal Benefit Rate of $994/month for an individual., And a resource test appears, one the MAGI groups are barred from facing: $4,000 in countable assets for a single applicant in Mississippi.,

The $4,000 asset limit is twice the SSI limit

The SSI countable-resource limit for an individual is $2,000. Mississippi sets its own higher number. For aged, blind, or disabled long-term-care and HCBS waiver coverage, the Division of Medicaid allows $4,000 in countable assets for an individual. When one spouse applies and the other stays home, the spousal resource rules below decide the split. Both spouses cannot be eligible for an HCBS waiver under those spousal rules; each is evaluated separately.

That extra room matters for someone just above the SSI limit: a person with $3,500 in countable assets is over the $2,000 SSI limit but under Mississippi's asset limit.,

Not everything you own counts. A resource counts toward the $4,000 unless it is specifically excluded, and Mississippi excludes a long list: one home in Mississippi, one automobile regardless of value, household goods, other personal property up to $5,000 in equity value, burial spaces for family members, and up to $6,000 in revocable burial funds. So the $4,000 generally reaches bank accounts, a second car, and investments (income-producing property that earns at least 6% of its equity value is excluded), not the roof over your head (a separate home-equity limit, below, can still block long-term-care payment).

How Mississippi Medicaid income limits work: the cap and the income trust

Mississippi sets its 2026 long-term-care income limit at $2,982/month, equal to 300% of the Supplemental Security Income Federal Benefit Rate ($994/month for an individual in 2026)., This is the limit for nursing-facility care and for home-and-community-based services (HCBS) waivers.

Mississippi is an income-cap state: an applicant whose total income is equal to or above $2,982 must qualify through an Income Trust to be eligible for long-term-care Medicaid. That route has a hard limit of its own: a person whose income is above the private-pay rate of the facility where they live is not eligible under the Income Trust provision.

An income trust, which federal sources call a Miller trust or qualifying income trust, is the arrangement Mississippi uses for applicants over the cap. It is open to people in an institution (not an acute care hospital) and to HCBS waiver participants, and only income may go into it, never assets. A nursing-facility resident whose income is below the facility's cost of care pays all income, less authorized deductions, directly to the facility. An HCBS waiver participant's trust may release no more than $1.00 less than the Medicaid income limit, and the participant pays the Division the portion due under the trust. When the trust ends, including at death, what is left in it, up to the medical assistance the Division has paid and not been repaid, goes to the Division.

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

When Mississippi Medicaid pays for nursing-facility care, the resident pays their monthly income toward the cost of care, after allowable deductions. One of those deductions is the Personal Needs Allowance (PNA), the amount the resident keeps for personal needs. In Mississippi, the basic PNA is $44/month. HCBS waiver participants are not subject to these patient-liability rules. Federal rules set a floor, not a ceiling: at least $30 a month for an aged, blind, or disabled individual and $60 for an institutionalized couple when both spouses are aged, blind, or disabled and their incomes count toward each other's eligibility, and a state may set its allowance higher.

Mississippi's rule adds a wrinkle for veterans. A resident who qualifies for a higher allowance keeps more: for example, a veteran, or a veteran's dependent, whose reduced VA pension payment is $90 has a $90 Personal Needs Allowance. (For the national picture on how the PNA is calculated, see our explainer on the Medicaid personal needs allowance.)

The five-year look-back

Mississippi reviews asset transfers made in the 60 months before a long-term-care application., 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 transfer penalty. For nursing-home care, Medicaid denies vendor payment (room and board) for the penalty period while still covering all other services; for an HCBS waiver applicant whose Medicaid depends on the waiver, the application is denied or the case closed for the penalty period.,

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. For the broader toolkit, see our guide to Medicaid planning strategies. Before paying a relative for care, read our guide to personal care agreements.

Protecting the spouse who stays home

When one spouse is in a nursing facility, in an acute care hospital, or on an HCBS waiver and the other lives in the community, spousal-impoverishment rules protect part of the couple's money for the at-home spouse. Mississippi uses the 2026 federal maximums for the resource share and the income allowance:,

Protection 2026 Amount What it does
Community spouse's resource share $162,660 (the 2026 federal maximum resource standard) The couple's countable resources are combined; the at-home spouse's share is up to this amount, the applicant's share is the $4,000 limit, and anything above both must be spent down before the applicant qualifies. Under federal law a fair hearing or court order can set more.
Maximum Monthly Maintenance Needs Allowance $4,066.50/month (effective 1/1/2026) A ceiling, not a guaranteed payment: the income allocation is the lesser of this amount minus the at-home spouse's own income, or the applicant's income after the personal needs allowance.
Home-equity limit $752,000 for 2026 (the federal minimum, which Mississippi's indexed rule tracks) Above this, Medicaid denies payment for nursing-facility and other long-term care; it does not apply while a spouse, a child under 21, or an adult blind or disabled child lives in the home, and it can be waived for undue hardship.

Mississippi's rule sets the community spouse's share at the federal resource maximum and caps the income allocation at the federal maximum allowance., Under federal law, a fair hearing or a court order can set a resource allowance above $162,660 in some cases. The home stays excluded from the asset count, but substantial home equity blocks long-term-care payment. Mississippi's limit was $500,000 in 2009 and rises with the urban consumer price index, the same as the federal minimum, which CMS publishes as $752,000 for 2026, and it does not apply when a spouse, a child under 21, or an adult blind or disabled child lives in the home, and it can be waived for undue hardship. For a deeper walk-through of how the community spouse is protected, see our Mississippi spousal-impoverishment guide.

After death: estate recovery

Mississippi runs a Medicaid estate-recovery program, as federal law requires. The Division is required to seek recovery of what it paid for nursing-facility and HCBS waiver services, plus related hospital and prescription drug services, from the estates of recipients who were 55 or older when they received those benefits. Life estate interests and property transferred into a trust are not subject to recovery. Under Mississippi's rule, recovery does not apply if, at death, the recipient has a legal surviving spouse living in the home, a dependent child under 21 living in the home, or a dependent blind or disabled child of any age living in the home, or if an undue-hardship condition exists. For how estate recovery works and where families have room to plan, see our Medicaid estate recovery explainer.

How to apply in Mississippi

Mississippi Medicaid is run by the Mississippi Division of Medicaid (DOM), under Title 23 of the Mississippi Administrative Code.

1
Step 1

For waiver services, file an Aged, Blind and Disabled Medicaid application

Someone not already on Medicaid who wants home-and-community-based waiver services starts with this application to the Division.

2
Step 2

Contact the waiver program's initial point of contact for a clinical evaluation

Waiver eligibility cannot begin until the waiver placement is approved and you are found eligible under institutional rules, whichever comes later.

3
Step 3

For the Elderly and Disabled Waiver, expect a level-of-care requirement

Mississippi's main home-and-community-based waiver for aged and disabled adults, the Elderly and Disabled Waiver, requires a beneficiary to be 21 or older and to need a nursing-facility level of care, as determined by a long-term services and supports (LTSS) assessment.

4
Step 4

Ask about an income trust if you are over the cap

If your monthly income reaches $2,982, start the income-trust conversation with an elder-law attorney early, since the trust has rules of its own.

Your next step Start an HCBS waiver application with the Mississippi Division of Medicaid by filing an Aged, Blind and Disabled Medicaid application and contacting the waiver program's initial point of contact. For nursing-facility coverage, ask the Division which application to file.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the regular Mississippi Medicaid income limit, not the nursing-home one?

That depends on the group, and for most groups it is set as a percentage of the Federal Poverty Level rather than as a dollar cap. CMS's eligibility-levels table (state decisions as of December 1, 2023) lists Mississippi at 194% FPL for children under 1, 143% for children 1-5, 133% for children 6-18, 209% for separate CHIP, and 194% for pregnant women. Parents and caretaker relatives with a dependent child under 18 fall under a dollar standard set by household size, which CMS converts to at most 19% of the poverty level. None of these MAGI groups face an asset test.

Can an adult without children get Mississippi Medicaid?

Not through the ACA expansion. Mississippi has not adopted the ACA Medicaid expansion, so there is no expansion-group coverage for a non-disabled, non-pregnant adult without dependent children. One limited-benefit pathway that stays open is the Family Planning Waiver, for women of child-bearing age and, since 2015, men, with family income at or below 185% FPL (converted to a MAGI-equivalent standard) who are not otherwise eligible for Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP or other health insurance covering family planning, within age and income limits the Division sets. Adults below the poverty level can fall into the coverage gap: too much income for Medicaid, too little for Marketplace premium subsidies. At 65, age itself can be the basis for an evaluation under the aged, blind, and disabled rules described on this page, with their own income and asset tests.

What is the Mississippi Medicaid asset limit in 2026?

For aged, blind, or disabled long-term-care and HCBS waiver Medicaid, the countable-asset limit is $4,000 for an individual, twice the $2,000 SSI limit. One home in Mississippi, one automobile regardless of value, household goods, and up to $6,000 in revocable burial funds are among the resources excluded from the count. For a married couple where one spouse stays home, the at-home spouse is protected separately under the spousal-impoverishment rules.

What is the Mississippi Medicaid income limit for nursing-home care?

$2,982/month in 2026, equal to 300% of the SSI Federal Benefit Rate. This applies to nursing-facility care and home-and-community-based waiver services. Mississippi is an income-cap state, so an applicant whose income is at or above that limit must qualify through an income trust.

Does Mississippi require a Miller Trust (income trust)?

Yes, for long-term-care Medicaid, if your income is $2,982 a month or more: Mississippi requires an Income Trust, which federal sources call a Miller trust. Only income goes into it, never assets, and income above the facility's private-pay rate makes a person ineligible under the Income Trust provision.

How much can a spouse keep when the other spouse goes into a nursing home?

For 2026, under the standard rules the at-home (community) spouse's share of the couple's combined countable resources is up to $162,660, the federal maximum (a fair hearing or court order can set more), plus, if the at-home spouse's income allows and the other spouse makes it available, a monthly income allocation from that spouse's income of up to $4,066.50/month less the at-home spouse's own income. The home-equity limit ($752,000 for 2026) does not apply while the spouse lives in the home.

What does a nursing-home resident on Mississippi Medicaid keep?

A basic Personal Needs Allowance of $44/month, unless the resident qualifies for a higher allowance, such as a veteran or a veteran's dependent whose VA pension is reduced to $90, who keeps $90. The rest of the resident's monthly income goes toward the cost of care, after other allowable deductions such as an income allocation for a spouse at home.

Can I qualify if my income is too high?

For nursing-facility or HCBS waiver Medicaid, possibly, with an income trust. Being at or over the $2,982 cap does not by itself rule you out in Mississippi, because an applicant at that level can qualify through an Income Trust. One hard limit: if your income is above the private-pay rate of the facility where you live, you are not eligible under the Income Trust provision. An attorney's help is strongly advised.

Learn More

MedicaidMedicaid Income Limits by State: Which Number Applies to YouMedicaid income limits for 2026 depend on your pathway: expansion adults, aged and disabled, or nursing-home care. See the figures and your state's limits. MedicaidMississippi Medicaid: A Guide for Seniors and FamiliesMississippi Medicaid covers seniors through the Division of Medicaid. Learn about the income cap, income trust, $4,000 asset limit, MSPs, and how to apply. MedicaidHow Mississippi Medicaid Estate Recovery WorksMississippi Medicaid estate recovery in 2026: who is subject, what the Division of Medicaid can claim from the estate, and how families are protected. MedicaidMedicaid Planning StrategiesSee which assets you keep, how the 5-year look-back works, and the legal moves that qualify you for Medicaid long-term care without losing the house. MedicaidHow Medicaid Estate Recovery WorksMedicaid estate recovery can claim a home after death, but not while a spouse or a child under 21, blind or disabled survives. See your state's rules. MedicaidThe Medicaid Personal Needs Allowance, ExplainedHow the Medicaid Personal Needs Allowance works in 2026: the $30 federal floor, what the states set, and how patient liability is calculated. MedicaidMississippi Medicare Savings ProgramsMississippi Medicare Savings Programs 2026: QMB, SLMB, and QI income limits, no asset test, Part B premium help, and how to apply through DOM.

Find personalized help working through Mississippi Medicaid income limits and the income-trust rule 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.

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