Nebraska Medicaid Income Limits 2026: Eligibility & Assets

Two numbers shape a Nebraska Medicaid long-term-care application, and both run friendlier than the national default. Nebraska lets a single applicant keep $4,000 in countable assets (twice the federal Supplemental Security Income (SSI) default of $2,000), and a married couple $6,000, and income over the line is not automatically the end of the road.1,2 If your income is above the line and your medical bills are heavy, Nebraska's Medically Needy program lets you put the excess toward those bills each month and qualify that way.1

Those Nebraska Medicaid income limits are the long-term-care answer, though, and Nebraska runs a second, completely separate income test for everyone else. This guide covers both. For seniors and people with disabilities applying for long-term care: the asset limit, how the medically needy share-of-cost spend-down works, what a nursing-home resident keeps, and what a spouse at home is protected from.1 For people under 65, including a grandparent raising a grandchild, the MAGI limits, Heritage Health Adult at 138% of the poverty level with no asset test at all, and what changes on the 65th birthday.3,4

Which Nebraska Medicaid income limit applies to you?

Nebraska runs two different Medicaid income tests, and they can return opposite answers for two people with identical bank statements. Which one you face depends on your age and on why you need coverage.

• The aged, blind, and disabled (ABD) track covers people 65 or older, blind, or disabled, and everyone applying for nursing-facility or other long-term-care coverage. It is assessed under financial rules separate from MAGI, and in Nebraska it applies an asset test. Every number in the section above is an ABD number.1,4
• The MAGI track covers people under 65 who are not disabled and not pregnant, plus children, pregnant women, and parents and caretaker relatives. Income is measured as Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI), household size generally follows federal tax-filing relationships (with separate non-filer rules in a few situations), and federal law bars Nebraska from applying any asset test at all.4,6

If you are under 65, not disabled and not seeking long-term care, the MAGI figures below are the ones that answer your question. If you are helping a parent qualify for long-term care, the ABD sections are yours.

The $4,000 asset limit, and why it's higher than you'd expect

The federal Supplemental Security Income program caps an individual's countable resources at $2,000.2 Nebraska sits above it. The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services sets the countable-asset limit at $4,000 for a single applicant and $6,000 for a married couple when both spouses are applying (per DHHS standard 477-000-012, effective 2026).1

"Countable" is the word doing the work. Under the federal SSI rules that the $2,000 default comes from, the home you live in, one vehicle used for transportation, and household goods and personal effects are not counted at all.2 Nebraska caps a burial trust at $6,924 (effective September 1, 2026).1 Confirm with DHHS which assets Nebraska excludes; home equity has its own limit, covered below.

The couple figure matters when both spouses need coverage. When only one spouse needs care and the other stays in the community, a separate and far larger set of spousal-impoverishment allowances applies instead, which is the section below on protecting the at-home spouse.

Nebraska Medicaid income limits and the share-of-cost spend-down

Nebraska runs a Medically Needy program. Its Medically Needy Income Level (MNIL) for 2026 is $392/month for a one-person household.1 That number is low, well under the $994/month 2026 federal SSI benefit rate.2 The Medically Needy program keeps it from shutting out everyone above it.

The program is built for people who are over Medicaid's income requirements but have a medical need and costly medical expenses.1 The amount your monthly income runs above $392 becomes your share of cost (also called a spenddown). The arithmetic is straightforward: a retiree with $1,400/month in Social Security runs $1,008 over the $392 level, so $1,008 is their share of cost for that month.1 You establish Medicaid eligibility by obligating that monthly amount to your medical bills. When the share of cost is owed to a nursing home or to an assisted-living or in-home waiver provider, you pay that monthly amount directly to the provider.1 For the broader set of approaches, see our guide to Medicaid planning strategies.

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

When Nebraska Medicaid pays for nursing-facility care, the resident contributes most of their monthly income toward the cost of care, after certain deductions such as an allowance for a spouse at home and health-insurance premiums.4 What they hold back is the Personal Needs Allowance (PNA), money set aside for the resident's own personal needs. Nebraska sets its PNA at $75/month, above the federal floor of $30.1,4

The same $4,000 asset limit applies to nursing-home applicants.1 And a resident whose income is over the $392 level can still qualify through the Medically Needy share of cost, which is paid straight to the nursing home; they simply contribute more of their income toward care.1 For the national picture on how the PNA is calculated and what it can be spent on, see our explainer on the Medicaid personal needs allowance.

The five-year look-back

Federal law sets a 60-month look-back: transfers made in the 60 months before a long-term-care application are reviewed.7 Giving away money or property for less than fair market value during that window, signing a house over to a child for a dollar or handing a grandchild a down payment, 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 (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.7 If long-term care is on the horizon for someone in your family, talk to a professional before moving assets.

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. Nebraska's community-spouse resource standard (its Reserved Amount) for 2026 uses the same minimum and maximum as the federal standard. On income, Nebraska's table (reissued October 6, 2026) rounds the $4,066.50 maximum to $4,066 and still prints $2,644, the superseded July 2025 figure; the federal minimum that applies from July 1, 2026 is $2,705.00. The table below also shows the federal home-equity limit, which matters to the same families:1,5,7

So a married couple sits in a very different position from a single applicant. The community spouse keeps all of her own monthly income, no matter how large, while the other spouse receives Medicaid-funded care, so her income is never the reason the couple fails the test. If it falls below her maintenance needs level, income diverted from the applicant can bring her up to it, to the extent the applicant has income to divert, within the $4,066.50/month cap in the table.5,1

Nebraska Medicaid income limits under 65: the MAGI rules

Nebraska has adopted the ACA Medicaid expansion, and it runs its expansion coverage under a state program name: Heritage Health Adult, for adults ages 19 to 64.3 In the ten states that have not adopted the expansion, adults depend on narrower routes, such as a separate federal demonstration, where one exists.3 Nebraska DHHS sets these MAGI limits as a percentage of the Federal Poverty Level, effective January 1, 2026:

None of these groups face an asset test.3

On the two numbers you may see for Heritage Health Adult. Nebraska's standards chart lists the group at 133% FPL; this guide uses 138%, the commonly stated figure. Both describe the same rule: 133% is the statutory base, and federal law applies a MAGI income disregard equal to 5 percentage points of the poverty level at the top of the group, which makes the effective ceiling 138% FPL.3,8 For one person in 2026, 138% FPL works out to roughly $1,835/month, which is 138% of the $15,960/year federal poverty guideline for a one-person household in the 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia, the schedule Nebraska uses.9,8

Expansion adults also face a federal community-engagement rule (80 hours a month of work, community service, a work program or half-time school) starting no later than the first quarter after December 31, 2026, with exemptions such as pregnancy, medical frailty, or being the parent or caretaker of a child 13 or younger. Ask DHHS when Nebraska's starts.8

Parents and caretaker relatives: 58% of poverty

Parents and other caretaker relatives are a federally mandatory Medicaid group, but federal law pegs their mandatory coverage to the state's own old cash-welfare standard rather than to a percentage of the poverty line. Under 42 CFR 435.110, each state sets the group's income standard within federal bounds, and the floor is the AFDC income standard the state had in effect on May 1, 1988, converted to a MAGI equivalent. So the 1988 floor is only the least a state may set; the state's own published standard is the number a family should check.10 Nebraska sets its parent/caretaker-relative level at 58% FPL, well under the poverty line.3

This is a group an eldercare reader can land in without expecting to: a grandparent raising a grandchild would look to the parent/caretaker-relative category rather than to a senior pathway. Whether a specific grandparent meets the caretaker-relative definition is a determination Nebraska DHHS makes on the application, so ask rather than assume.

The 58% figure reads harsher than it works out to be in Nebraska, and the reason is the expansion. A grandparent under 65 whose income clears the 58% caretaker level can still qualify through Heritage Health Adult, whose 138% ceiling is more than twice as high.3 One condition applies: a caretaker relative living with a dependent child under 19 can be covered in the expansion group only if that child has coverage of their own, through Medicaid, CHIP or other minimum essential coverage, so expect DHHS to ask about the grandchild's coverage.8 In a state without an expansion group, it is the state-set caretaker standard, not a poverty-level percentage, that decides whether a working parent qualifies.10,3

No asset test on the MAGI track

The $4,000 asset limit at the top of this guide does not exist on the MAGI side. Federal law bars a state from applying any asset or resource test to the MAGI groups, and Nebraska applies none. That federal rule does not reach the pathways the statute excepts, among them people whose eligibility rests on being 65 or older, people assessed as blind or disabled, the medically needy, and people requesting long-term care, and on the aged, blind, and disabled side Nebraska applies its $4,000 limit.4,3,1

The practical effect inside one family: a 60-year-old with $50,000 in savings and income under $1,835/month qualifies for Heritage Health Adult, because her savings are not counted at all. Her 70-year-old mother, with the same $50,000, is far over Nebraska's $4,000 countable-asset limit and must spend down.4,1

Children and CHIP, briefly

Coverage for children under 19 is federally mandatory down to at least 133% FPL, and states may go higher.11 Nebraska does, on a sliding scale by age: Medicaid covers newborns to age 1 up to 162% FPL, ages 1–5 up to 145% FPL, and ages 6–18 up to 133% FPL, with CHIP picking up children above those thresholds to 213% FPL.3 So the combined Medicaid-and-CHIP ceiling is 213% FPL for every age band, which is why the national medicaid.gov eligibility table reports Nebraska children at 213% across the board while the state chart shows the lower Medicaid-only figures.3

Turning 65 changes which test you face

Turning 65 can end Medicaid coverage even though nothing about the person's income changed. Heritage Health Adult, like every state's expansion group, is written for people under 65 who are not entitled to or enrolled in Medicare.8 On the 65th birthday that pathway closes, and the same person is reassessed on the aged, blind, and disabled track, which federal law excepts from the no-asset-test rule. The exception is purpose-limited, though: someone who also fits another MAGI group, such as a parent or caretaker relative, is still assessed for that group under MAGI rules, with no asset test.4

Two things change at once in Nebraska:

• The income yardstick drops. The measure stops being 138% FPL (roughly $1,835/month) and becomes the aged, blind, and disabled standards. For reference, the 2026 SSI Federal Benefit Rate is $994/month for an individual, and Nebraska's medically needy income level is $392/month.2,1
• An asset test appears where there was none. Nebraska counts resources against a $4,000 limit for a single applicant on the ABD track. That is double the $2,000 federal SSI default, but it is a limit that did not apply to that person the day before their birthday.1,2

The income half of the cliff is softened by Nebraska's Medically Needy program: a 64-year-old covered at $1,600/month who has costly medical bills can still establish eligibility at 65 by obligating the amount over $392 to those bills each month as a share of cost.1 The asset half is the harder edge. The same person with $10,000 in savings held Medicaid with no asset test at all at 64; at 65 that $10,000 sits over Nebraska's $4,000 limit and has to be spent down before coverage resumes.1,4

Age is not the only trigger. The expansion group also excludes anyone entitled to or enrolled in Medicare, so someone under 65 who reaches Medicare through disability leaves the 138%, no-asset-test group the same way.8 If a birthday or a Medicare enrollment is coming up for someone in your family who is on Heritage Health Adult, that is the moment to plan, not the month after.

After death: estate recovery

Nebraska runs a Medicaid estate-recovery program under a federal law that requires every state to seek recovery in certain cases.12 Nebraska's claim covers what Medicaid paid while the recipient was 55 or older, or while they lived in a medical institution and were not expected to return home, and it is not limited to long-term-care costs. Recovery waits until after the death of a surviving spouse, and does not proceed while there is a surviving child who is under 21 or blind or totally and permanently disabled; these protections defer recovery rather than cancel it. DHHS may also waive or compromise its claim for undue hardship.13 For how estate recovery works and where families have room to plan, see our Medicaid estate recovery explainer.

How to apply for Nebraska Medicaid

Nebraska Medicaid is overseen by the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services through its Division of Medicaid and Long-Term Care.1 There are three steps to getting a long-term-care decision.

Learn More

Find personalized help working through Nebraska Medicaid eligibility and the share-of-cost spend-down 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.