Free tool
Medicaid spend down calculator
This Medicaid spend down calculator estimates how much of a family's countable assets must be gone before Medicaid begins paying for nursing home care. It uses your state's applicant asset limit (most states use $2,000 for a single applicant in 2025) and, for married couples, the federal community spouse resource allowance that lets the at-home spouse keep between $31,584 and $157,920 of the couple's assets (2025 figures).
What this estimate includes, and what it cannot
The calculation covers the asset test only. Medicaid also applies an income test, and in roughly two dozen income-cap states an applicant whose income exceeds the cap needs a Miller trust for the income side of eligibility no matter what the assets look like. It also assumes the primary home is exempt, which is true while the applicant or spouse lives in it, up to your state's equity limit.
The number this tool produces is not money that has to disappear into a facility's billing office. Families routinely satisfy spend-down while keeping real value: home repairs, an irrevocable funeral trust, paying off debt, replacing a car, and paying a family caregiver under a written agreement. Our guide to doing a Medicaid spend down without wasting it walks through each option, and families more than five years from needing care can avoid the spend-down entirely with a properly funded Medicaid asset protection trust.
This calculator provides a general estimate for education, not legal or financial advice, and state rules differ. LegalQuill is not a law firm; we prepare documents at your direction, drafted and reviewed by licensed attorneys.