New Mexico Medicaid income limits come in two sets, not one. The state applies two different Medicaid income tests, and which one you are measured against decides everything else. For long-term care, the state runs a hard income ceiling, not a spend-down: a single applicant seeking nursing-facility or waiver coverage cannot have gross monthly income above $2,982 in 2026, and going over that limit by even a dollar means setting up a Qualified Income Trust before the program will pay. For everyone else (children, parents and caretaker relatives, and adults under 65 who are not on Medicare), the test is Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI), set as a percentage of the poverty level and carrying no asset test at all.,

This guide covers both tests. On the long-term-care side: the $2,982 income cap and how a Qualified Income Trust handles income above it, the $2,000 asset limit, what a nursing-home resident keeps, and the protections for a spouse who stays home. On the MAGI side: New Mexico's income limits by group, the parent and caretaker-relative pathway, and the transition that catches families most often: turning 65 closes the adult group.,

In This Guide

New Mexico Medicaid income limits: which of the two tests applies to you

The two tests produce different numbers for the same household, and which applies is decided by your situation, not your income.

The long-term-care test is the one this guide leads with. The $2,982/month cap belongs to the SSI-related aged, blind, and disabled (ABD) track: for people 65 or older, blind, or disabled and needing nursing-facility or waiver care. It carries a $2,000 asset test.

The MAGI test covers everyone else: children, pregnant women, parents and caretaker relatives, and adults ages 19 through 64 who are not on Medicare. Its limits are set as a percentage of the Federal Poverty Level, and federal law bars New Mexico from applying any asset test to these groups.,

The two numbers are not ranked the way most people expect. The long-term-care cap is $2,982/month, while the MAGI ceiling for an adult under 65 works out to roughly $1,835/month for a household of one.,, A New Mexican can be under the long-term-care cap and over the adult MAGI limit at the same income. New Mexico's figures by group are in New Mexico Medicaid income limits under MAGI.

New Mexico Medicaid long-term-care income limits: why the cap is the whole story

New Mexico is one of the states that runs Medicaid long-term care on a strict income cap. For nursing-facility coverage and for the home-and-community-based services the New Mexico Health Care Authority (HCA) delivers, a single applicant's gross monthly income cannot exceed $2,982 in 2026. That number is set at 300% of the SSI Federal Benefit Rate, which is $994/month for 2026; 300% of $994 is $2,982.

Here is where New Mexico parts ways with spend-down states like Illinois. In a spend-down state, income over the limit becomes a monthly amount you use up on medical bills before coverage starts. New Mexico has no medically needy spend-down for institutional care. The cap is a true cliff: count your gross income, and if it lands above $2,982, the regular door is closed.

The state does not leave over-income applicants stranded, though. The legal workaround is the next section.

When you are over the New Mexico Medicaid income limit: the Qualified Income Trust

If your gross income exceeds $2,982/month, New Mexico requires you to set up a Qualified Income Trust, which the state calls an Income Diversion Trust and which is also known nationally as a Miller Trust, to qualify for long-term-care Medicaid. The mechanics are specific, and getting them right matters:

  • You establish the trust and name the state Medicaid agency as the remainder beneficiary.
  • Each month, you deposit the income that exceeds the limit into the trust. Income placed in a properly drafted trust no longer counts against the cap, so on paper you are back under $2,982.
  • The trust funds are then disbursed under Medicaid rules, toward your Personal Needs Allowance, a community spouse's allowance if there is one, certain health-insurance premiums, and the patient share of your care.

The trust has to be funded every month it is needed, and the deposits have to happen on time. A trust that is set up but not consistently funded will not protect eligibility. Because the drafting and the monthly mechanics are unforgiving, this is the part of New Mexico Medicaid where families most often want an elder-law attorney rather than a do-it-yourself template.

One thing the income trust does not do: it does not help with assets. It solves the income test only. The asset rules below still apply on their own.

The asset limit for a single applicant

New Mexico holds to the long-standing federal baseline for assets. A single nursing-home or waiver applicant is limited to $2,000 in countable resources. For married applicants, special income and resource rules apply, and up to $162,660 of the couple's resources can be protected for the non-institutionalized spouse.

"Countable" is the word that carries the weight. New Mexico, like every state, excludes a list of assets from the count:

So the $2,000 applies to things like bank accounts, a second car, and investments, not the roof over your head. Where a married couple has only one spouse applying, the spousal-impoverishment rules below are what protect the at-home spouse's share, and those allowances are far larger than $2,000.

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

When New Mexico Medicaid pays for nursing-facility care, the resident contributes almost all of their monthly income toward the cost of care as a patient liability. What they hold back is the Personal Needs Allowance (PNA), money reserved for the resident's own small expenses such as clothing, a haircut, or a phone bill. New Mexico sets its Institutional Care PNA at $97/month. That is above the federal floor of $30/month for a single institutionalized individual.

The same $2,000 asset limit applies to nursing-home applicants. Because New Mexico caps income rather than running a spend-down, a resident whose income tops $2,982 reaches eligibility through the income trust, then contributes the trust-disbursed share toward care. For the national picture on the PNA and how it is set, see our explainer on the Medicaid personal needs allowance.

The five-year look-back

New Mexico 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, such as gifting a grandchild a down payment or signing a house over to a child for a dollar, can trigger a penalty period during which Medicaid will not pay for long-term-care services even though you are otherwise eligible.

There are legitimate exceptions, including 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 long-term care is on the horizon for someone in your family, talk to a professional before moving assets. For the broader toolkit, see our guide to Medicaid planning strategies.

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. New Mexico applies the federal allowances for 2026:,

Protection 2026 Amount What it does
Community Spouse Resource Allowance (CSRA) Half the couple's countable assets, up to $162,660; minimum $32,532 The most in countable assets the at-home spouse may keep, on top of the applicant's own $2,000 limit.
Maximum Monthly Maintenance Needs Allowance (MMMNA) Up to $4,066.50/month (effective 1/1/2026) The most monthly income the at-home spouse may keep; income can be shifted from the applicant to reach it.

So a married couple with one spouse applying is in a very different position from a single applicant. The community spouse can hold up to $162,660 in countable assets and keep an income allowance reaching $4,066.50/month while the other spouse receives Medicaid-funded care. For the New Mexico specifics, see our guide to New Mexico Medicaid spousal impoverishment rules.

After death: estate recovery

Like every state, New Mexico 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. Federal exceptions and an undue-hardship waiver apply., For how estate recovery works and where families have room to plan, see our Medicaid estate recovery explainer.

New Mexico Medicaid income limits under MAGI: adults, parents, and children

Everything above applies to the long-term-care track. Most people searching for the New Mexico Medicaid income limit are not applying for nursing-home care; their answer sits here.

New Mexico has adopted the ACA Medicaid expansion, so it runs the full set of MAGI categories, each with its own income standard. The Health Care Authority numbers these categories, which is how they appear on the state's eligibility pamphlet and on your notices.

Adults under 65: Category 100, Other Adults

New Mexico covers adults ages 19 through 64 with no Medicare eligibility under Category 100, Other Adults, which the state's eligibility pamphlet sets at 0% to 133% FPL.

Two numbers circulate for this group, and both are correct. The statute writes the threshold as 133% FPL; because MAGI rules apply a mandatory income disregard of 5 percentage points of the poverty level, the effective ceiling is 138% FPL. New Mexico's chart and the federal table both publish the 133% base, but 138% is what your income is measured against.,

In dollars, 138% of the poverty level is roughly $1,835/month for a household of one, from the 2026 guideline of $15,960/year for one person in the 48 contiguous states and DC., There is no asset test on this pathway.

Parents and caretaker relatives: Category 200

New Mexico covers parents and other caretaker relatives under Category 200, Parent/Caretaker Relative Medicaid, measured against a fixed-dollar income standard rather than a percentage of the poverty level. It is the same standard the state uses for Category 300, Full Medicaid for Pregnant Women.

That standard is low, for a structural reason. Parents and caretaker relatives are a federally mandatory Medicaid group, but unlike children and the expansion adults, their mandatory floor is pegged to the state's old pre-1996 AFDC cash-welfare standard, which is typically far below the poverty level. The federal eligibility table puts New Mexico's Category 200 standard at the equivalent of 37% FPL. Treat that as a guide rather than a decision: it comes from the federal comparison table, not from New Mexico's pamphlet, which states Category 200 as a fixed-dollar standard without publishing the amount. The Health Care Authority is the only reliable source for the current figure.

In New Mexico, that low standard matters far less than it does elsewhere. Because the state runs the expansion adult group, a parent under 65 who is over the Category 200 standard is generally picked up by Category 100 instead., The frozen AFDC floor bites hardest in the states that did not adopt the expansion, where no adult group sits underneath it to catch the same parent.,

For a grandparent raising a grandchild, Category 200 is the group to ask about: parents and other caretaker relatives are a single federally mandatory group, the pathway written for a relative caring for a child in the home. Whether a particular grandparent meets New Mexico's definition of a caretaker relative is a determination for the Health Care Authority. Ask them directly rather than assuming either way.

Turning 65 closes the adult group

This is the transition that catches New Mexico families, and it is why both tests belong on one page.

Category 100 is written for adults ages 19 through 64 with no Medicare eligibility. That age band is not a state choice; it is the federal definition of the new adult group, which covers individuals under 65 who are not pregnant and not entitled to or enrolled in Medicare, at an effective ceiling of 138% FPL and with no asset test.,

On the 65th birthday, that pathway closes. The same person is generally assessed on the SSI-related ABD track instead, the track federal law expressly excepts from the MAGI no-asset-test rule. Two things change at once:

So a 64-year-old New Mexican covered at $1,600/month with modest savings can be over both tests at 65, without a dollar of income changing.,

Two things matter at that transition. First, the cliff has a second trigger unrelated to age: Category 100 also excludes anyone entitled to or enrolled in Medicare, so a person under 65 who reaches Medicare through disability leaves the group the same way., Second, the $2,982 cap at the top of this guide is not the door that opens in its place: it applies to people who need nursing-facility-level care. Someone who ages off Category 100 without needing that level of care is measured against the ABD standards instead. If Medicare is the reason the group closed, the New Mexico Medicare Savings Programs are usually the next thing to price.

Children and CHIP, briefly

New Mexico's children's coverage runs in tiers, and the age bands are the state's own: 0 through 5 and 6 through 18, not the three-band split some states publish.

Group New Mexico category Income limit
Adults 19-64, no Medicare Other Adults (100) 133% FPL base; 138% FPL effective
Parents / caretaker relatives Parent/Caretaker Relative Medicaid (200) Fixed-dollar standard (about 37% FPL)
Pregnant women Full Medicaid for Pregnant Women (300) Fixed-dollar standard
Pregnant women Pregnancy Related Medicaid (301) Up to 250% FPL
Children 0 through 5 Children's Medicaid (400, 402) Up to 240% FPL
Children 0 through 5 CHIP Medicaid (420) 240%-300% FPL
Children 6 through 18 Children's Medicaid (401, 403) Up to 190% FPL
Children 6 through 18 CHIP Medicaid (421) 190%-240% FPL

Combined, Medicaid and CHIP cover children 0 through 5 to 300% FPL and children 6 through 18 to 240% FPL. New Mexico runs a Medicaid-expansion CHIP rather than a separate, standalone CHIP program, and on the federal comparison table its separate-CHIP column is marked N/A. So there is no distinct CHIP program with its own name to apply to: children's CHIP coverage runs through the Medicaid categories above.

No asset test on the MAGI side

None of New Mexico's MAGI categories applies a resource test. That is federal law rather than a state choice: it bars any assets test on the MAGI groups, and expressly excepts the SSI-related ABD and long-term-care pathways from that bar.

So the $2,000 countable-asset limit earlier in this guide is real, but it belongs to the long-term-care side only. A 60-year-old New Mexican with $40,000 in savings and $1,500/month in income qualifies under Category 100 on income alone., The same person at 66 is measured on the ABD track, where a resource test applies and those savings do count.,

How to apply in New Mexico

New Mexico Medicaid is administered by the New Mexico Health Care Authority (HCA, formerly the Human Services Department), with financial eligibility for long-term care handled through its Income Support Division. You have two main ways to apply: online through the YesNM portal, or by phone through the HCA.

YesNM Online Portal Apply online for Medicaid alongside other benefits. yes.state.nm.us
New Mexico Health Care Authority Income Support Division, financial eligibility for long-term care. 1-800-283-4465 hca.nm.gov

Long-term-care applicants also go through a level-of-care assessment to confirm they need nursing-facility-level services. Apply even if your income looks too high. Between the income trust and the spousal protections, many people who assume they are disqualified are not; they just need the right paperwork in place first.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the New Mexico Medicaid income limit for 2026?

It depends on which test applies. For nursing-facility and home-and-community-based waiver coverage, the 2026 income cap is $2,982/month for a single applicant, equal to 300% of the SSI Federal Benefit Rate; New Mexico is an income-cap state, so income above that figure requires a Qualified Income Trust rather than a spend-down. For everyone tested on MAGI (children, pregnant women, parents and caretaker relatives, and adults 19 through 64 who are not on Medicare), the limit is a percentage of the poverty level that varies by group, and no asset test applies.

What is the regular, non-nursing-home Medicaid income limit in New Mexico?

For an adult age 19 through 64 with no Medicare, New Mexico covers income up to an effective 138% of the poverty level under Category 100, Other Adults, or roughly $1,835/month for a household of one in 2026. The pamphlet publishes the 133% base; the effective ceiling is 138% because MAGI rules apply a mandatory 5-percentage-point disregard. There is no asset test on this pathway.

Can an adult under 65 without children qualify for New Mexico Medicaid?

Yes. New Mexico has adopted the ACA Medicaid expansion, so it covers adults ages 19 through 64 who are not on Medicare under Category 100 whether or not they have children, at an effective 138% FPL and with no asset test. In the ten states that did not expand, a childless adult has no comparable pathway.

I turn 65 soon and have New Mexico Medicaid. Will I lose it?

Possibly, and this catches people. Category 100 covers only adults under 65 who are not entitled to or enrolled in Medicare, so it closes on the 65th birthday. You are then generally assessed on the SSI-related ABD track, where the yardstick becomes the SSI Federal Benefit Rate of $994/month instead of 138% FPL and a resource test appears, defaulting to $2,000. Someone covered at $1,600/month with modest savings can be over both tests at 65 without a dollar of income changing. Reaching Medicare under 65 through disability closes the group too.

Does New Mexico require a Miller Trust?

Yes, if your gross monthly income exceeds the $2,982 cap. New Mexico does not offer a medically needy spend-down for institutional care, so an over-income applicant must establish a Qualified Income Trust (the state's term is an Income Diversion Trust) and deposit the excess income into it each month to qualify. The trust has to be funded every month it is needed.

What is the New Mexico Medicaid asset limit?

$2,000 in countable resources for a single applicant, on the long-term-care and SSI-related ABD track only. The MAGI groups (children, pregnant women, parents and caretaker relatives, and adults under 65) have no asset test at all: federal law bars states from applying one. The home (subject to a home-equity cap), one vehicle, household goods, and a burial fund are excluded from the count. For a married couple with one spouse applying, up to $162,660 of the couple's resources can be protected for the at-home spouse.

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

For 2026, the at-home (community) spouse can keep up to $162,660 in countable assets (the Community Spouse Resource Allowance, minimum $32,532) and a monthly income allowance reaching $4,066.50 as of January 1, 2026.

What does a nursing-home resident on New Mexico Medicaid get to keep?

A Personal Needs Allowance of $97/month under New Mexico's Institutional Care rules. The rest of the resident's monthly income goes toward the cost of care, after deductions for a community spouse and certain health-insurance premiums.

How do I apply for New Mexico Medicaid long-term care?

Apply online through the YesNM portal at yes.state.nm.us, or by phone through the New Mexico Health Care Authority at 1-800-283-4465. Long-term-care applicants also complete a level-of-care assessment to confirm they need nursing-facility-level care.

Learn More

MedicaidMedicaid Income Limits by State: Which Number Applies to YouMedicaid income limits depend on your pathway: expansion adults, aged and disabled, or nursing-home care. See the 2026 figures and your state's exact limits. 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 explained: federal law, 51-state matrix, categorical protections, hardship waivers, and 2025-2026 reform updates. Verify before acting. MedicaidThe Medicaid Personal Needs Allowance, ExplainedHow the Medicaid Personal Needs Allowance works in 2026: the $30 federal floor, state figures from $30 to $200, and how patient liability is calculated. MedicaidNew Mexico Medicaid Estate RecoveryHow New Mexico Medicaid estate recovery works in 2026: probate-only scope, who is protected, the undue hardship waiver, and how to respond to an HCA claim. MedicaidNew Mexico Medicare Savings ProgramsNew Mexico Medicare Savings Programs 2026: QMB, SLMB, and QI income limits, no asset test, and how to apply for help paying Medicare premiums. MedicaidNew Mexico Medicaid Spousal Impoverishment RulesNew Mexico Medicaid spousal impoverishment in 2026: a CSRA of $32,532–$162,660, an MMMNA floor of $2,705.00, and Centennial Care's Income Diversion Trust.

Find personalized help working through New Mexico Medicaid eligibility and the income-trust process 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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Brevy Care Team

Expert eldercare guidance from Brevy's team of healthcare professionals and researchers.