Medicaid & Long-Term Care Calculators
Ten free calculators for eligibility, long-term care, spend-down, the look-back period, the community spouse allowance, estate recovery, dual-eligible status and nursing home costs, using official CMS and state Medicaid data.
Medicaid is the program that pays for long-term nursing home and in-home care. Medicare generally covers only short stays after a hospital admission. Medicaid rules also differ more by state than those of any other program on this site: income limits, asset limits and estate recovery rules all vary. These tools explain the federal rules and point out where your state's rules will change the answer.
Do You Qualify?
Medicaid for seniors comes in two forms. Regular Medicaid has income and asset limits for general health coverage. Long-term care Medicaid pays for nursing home or home-based care and has its own rules, including separate treatment of a spouse's assets. Start with the Medicaid Eligibility Calculator, and use the Long-Term Care Eligibility Estimator if you need nursing home or in-home care now. If you have Medicare, the Dual-Eligible Checker shows whether you also qualify for Medicaid's help with costs, and our explainer on D-SNP plans covers plan types and the enrollment rules that changed in 2025. If you are married and one spouse needs care, the Community Spouse Allowance Calculator shows how much the spouse at home can keep. Our full explainer covers the "snapshot date" on which those amounts are based.
If You're Over the Limit: Spend-Down and the Look-Back Period
Income or assets above Medicaid's limit do not always rule you out. With a spend-down, medical bills are counted against the excess until you are within the limit. For long-term care, Medicaid also reviews the five years before your application for assets given away or sold below fair value. A transfer in that period can lead to a penalty period in which Medicaid will not pay, even when the gift was made years earlier for unrelated reasons. Use the Spend-Down Calculator and the Look-Back Period Calculator before you apply. Our explainers on spend-down myths and the look-back penalty math give the detail behind each one.
What Will Care Cost?
Nursing home and assisted living costs differ widely by state and region. The Nursing Home Cost Calculator and the Senior Care Cost Calculator use state cost data to estimate what private-pay care would cost. For many families that figure shows why Medicaid is the only way to pay for care over several years. Assisted living is treated differently from a nursing home. Our explainer covers why Medicaid never pays room and board there, and why its coverage of care services depends on a waiver with limited places.
Related Costs People Miss
Dental and denture coverage is a common gap in both Medicare and private plans, and several states have grant programs that help. Check the Denture & Dental Grant Finder if you are facing that cost.
What Happens to the Estate Afterward?
Families often ask whether the state can recover its costs from the home after the recipient dies. Federal law blocks or delays recovery when there is a living spouse or certain dependent children, and it protects the home for a qualifying sibling or caregiver child. These protections are the same in every state, although other parts of each state's recovery program differ. The Estate Recovery Risk Checker shows which protections apply to you, and our full explainer on estate recovery covers the law in more depth.
Every Medicaid Tool
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Medicaid the same as Medicare?
No. Medicare is a federal health insurance program based on age or disability, largely independent of income. Medicaid is a joint federal-state program based on income and asset limits. Many seniors qualify for both at once, known as being dual-eligible.
What is the Medicaid look-back period?
It's a review window, generally five years, during which Medicaid checks for asset transfers made for less than fair value before you applied for long-term care coverage. Transfers found during that window can trigger a penalty period of ineligibility.
Will Medicaid take my house?
Not while you are alive. After death, states can recover long-term care costs from your estate through Medicaid Estate Recovery, and the estate can include the home. Federal law bars recovery while a spouse or certain dependent children survive, and other rules differ by state.
What is spend-down and how does it work?
With a spend-down, applicants whose income is above Medicaid's limit can become eligible by counting allowable expenses, such as medical bills, against the excess until they are within the limit. It works much like meeting a deductible.
This page is for general educational purposes and is not affiliated with Medicaid.gov, CMS, or any state Medicaid agency. Medicaid rules vary by state. See our Data Sources page for how we source figures, and confirm details with your state Medicaid office before making decisions.