This page is FundingDependency.com's source and evidence hub. Below, every major financial or legal claim made on this site — asset limits, look-back rules, Medicare and VA coverage limits, cost data — is laid out as Claim, Source, Date checked, and a plain- language explanation, plus two resource libraries: the Medicaid Planning content on this site, distilled into the pillar pages, and the full Dependency Series of white papers on the medical conditions that most often trigger a long-term care need.
Long-term care funding involves real dollar figures and real legal rules — so we don't ask you to take our word for it. Each card below traces a claim made elsewhere on this site back to its primary source, the date we last checked it against that source, and a plain- language explanation of what it means and where it can vary.
Medicaid eligibility rules vary by state and can change annually.
Medicaid is jointly administered by CMS and each state's Medicaid agency, so asset limits, income caps, and program rules are federal minimums or ranges that states fill in themselves. Always confirm your state's current numbers before relying on a figure from this site.
A single Medicaid applicant's countable asset limit is $2,000 in most states (2026).
This figure traces back to the SSI resource standard that most states use as their Medicaid asset test. A handful of states set a higher limit, so treat $2,000 as a starting point, not a guarantee.
The Community Spouse Resource Allowance (CSRA) can reach up to $157,920 in 2026.
The CSRA protects savings for the spouse who stays at home while the other spouse qualifies for Medicaid. The federal ceiling adjusts for inflation each year, and some states set their own maximum below that ceiling.
A Medicaid applicant's home equity above $752,000–$1,130,000 (2026) can disqualify them, unless a spouse or dependent relative lives there.
States choose where within that federally set range to draw their own home-equity line — Florida uses the $752,000 minimum, and a few states, including California, apply no cap at all. Separately, an applicant who doesn't live in the home must also state an Intent to Return for it to stay exempt; that requirement doesn't waive the equity cap itself. Confirm the exact figure your state uses.
Medicaid's asset-transfer look-back period is 60 months (5 years) in nearly every state.
California is currently the only state using a shorter look-back. Transfers made for less than fair value inside the 60-month window can trigger a penalty period of ineligibility — which is why advance planning is timed around this window.
Medicaid pays for care for approximately 61% of nursing home residents nationally.
Medicaid is the single largest payer of long-term nursing home care in the U.S., which is part of why understanding its eligibility rules matters even for families who never expected to need it.
Medicaid can pay for home care through Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) waivers.
HCBS waivers let states pay for home-based personal care, adult day services, and similar supports as an alternative to nursing home placement, but availability, covered services, and waiting lists vary widely by state.
Medicare covers only up to 100 days of skilled nursing facility care per benefit period, and only after a qualifying inpatient hospital stay.
Days 1–20 are covered in full, days 21–100 require a daily coinsurance payment, and Medicare pays nothing after day 100. It was designed for short-term rehabilitation, not an extended custodial care need.
Medicare does not cover ongoing custodial long-term care.
This is one of the most common and costly misconceptions families run into. Medicare pays for medically necessary and rehabilitative care, not for ongoing help with daily living over months or years.
Medicaid estate recovery lets a state seek repayment from an applicant's estate after death, but exemptions and deferrals exist.
A surviving spouse, a minor or disabled child, or another qualifying dependent living in the home can trigger an exemption or deferral. Planning tools such as a Lady Bird deed can also help keep a home out of the recovery process.
VA Aid & Attendance uses a net worth test that is aligned with the Medicaid CSRA figure and adjusts annually.
The VA reviews net worth alongside income to decide Aid & Attendance eligibility, and the current limit is set to track the same figure Medicaid uses for a community spouse's resource allowance.
Many carriers have exited the stand-alone long-term care insurance market since the 2010s.
State insurance regulators have documented this market contraction, which is part of why hybrid life/long-term-care products (Pillar 2) have become a more common alternative funding pillar.
The cost of long-term care varies significantly by state and even by county.
National average figures are useful for framing a first conversation about long-term care costs, but they should not be used to build an actual household budget — always check region-specific data before making a funding decision.
For VA pension and Aid & Attendance purposes, net worth counts a claimant's countable assets plus their annual income, not assets alone.
This is why a household can have countable assets below the VA's published net-worth limit and still be over the line once a year of income is added in -- the primary residence on a reasonable lot size and one vehicle are excluded from the calculation, but nearly everything else counts, and income is not a separate, independent test.
A full white paper on Medicaid planning — MAPTs, Lady Bird deeds, Medicaid Compliant Annuities, spousal protections, exempt-asset conversion, and estate recovery — has been distilled into three of the ten funding pillars on this site. Start with whichever matches your timeline.
The core eligibility numbers: asset limits, income caps, CSRA, MMMNA, and home equity caps for 2026.
MAPTs, Lady Bird deeds, gifting, and the 60-month lookback — for families with a 5+ year runway.
Medicaid Compliant Annuities, promissory notes, and spousal refusal — for families already facing a care need.
The Dependency Series is a sister project covering the medical conditions that most often lead to a long-term care need — written for patients, families, and caregivers, with no sales pitch. Each paper links back here for funding guidance.
The single most common long-term care trigger in the U.S. — Alzheimer's, vascular dementia, Lewy body, and frontotemporal dementia.
Read the paper →What a stroke changes overnight, and the rehab-to-long-term-care pathway families should expect.
Read the paper →A single fall changes the odds. The cascade from ER visit to rehab to long-term care.
Read the paper →A progressive condition with a long runway for planning — and specific care considerations as it advances.
Read the paper →Respiratory decline and its impact on independence, oxygen needs, and care settings.
Read the paper →Long-term complications that quietly erode independence over decades.
Read the paper →Chronic joint pain and mobility loss — a slow-moving but common driver of care needs.
Read the paper →Heart disease and heart failure, and how they shape long-term care timing.
Read the paper →Dialysis, transplant considerations, and the caregiving burden of kidney disease.
Read the paper →Treatment, recovery, and the long-term care questions that can follow a cancer diagnosis.
Read the paper →Sensory impairment's underappreciated role in falls, isolation, and care needs.
Read the paper →Chronic autoimmune conditions and their variable, often unpredictable care trajectories.
Read the paper →Nursing facility care, memory care, assisted living, independent living, home health care (personal vs. professional), and Lifecare/CCRC costs — broken out for every state and Washington, D.C., sourced from the CareScout 2025 Cost of Care Survey and the A Place for Mom 2026 report.
Six cost categories, compared state-by-state and against the national median, with every figure sourced.
Searching for long-term care resources near you, or trying to find local long-term care help for a parent who's just had a fall, a diagnosis, or a hospital discharge? Before you compare insurance policies or run the numbers on Medicaid, the fastest first call is a free, federally funded referral network built for exactly this moment — one that connects your family to the Area Agency on Aging serving your specific zip code.
Once you know what's available locally, the next question is how to pay for it and plan around it. LongTermCare.gov — the National Clearinghouse for Long-Term Care Information, now hosted by the Administration for Community Living — is the natural companion resource to the Eldercare Locator: it explains what long-term care actually costs, how Medicare, Medicaid, and private long-term care insurance each fit into a plan, and how to start building one before a crisis forces the decision. Use the Eldercare Locator to find help this week, and LongTermCare.gov to plan for the years ahead.
Beyond the specific claims sourced in the Evidence Hub above, these are the primary, public sources we return to most often and recommend bookmarking directly:
Twelve questions. About four minutes. A shortlist ranked for your specific situation.
Enter your name and email to start — answers pull straight from the articles already on this site, reviewed by George A. Mellendorf.
Answers point to existing pages on this site and are educational only — not legal, financial, or medical advice.