As of January 1, 2026, California has an asset limit for most non-MAGI Medi-Cal again. It is $130,000 for a single applicant, and for a married couple with one spouse in a facility, $130,000 for the applicant plus a community spouse resource allowance of $157,920 for the spouse still living at home.
If you read something different last week, the article was probably written before the state budget deal that brought the limit back. Most of what is online right now is wrong in one direction or the other.
Here is the short history, because you need it to sort good information from stale information. For decades California ran a $2,000 asset limit for a single applicant, a number that had not moved since the Reagan administration. In 2022 the state raised it sharply, and in 2024 it eliminated the asset test entirely for most non-MAGI Medi-Cal. For about two years, a person could have a paid-off house, a brokerage account, and savings, and still qualify for long-term care coverage. That window has closed.
The reversal came out of a state budget agreement, not a court ruling and not a federal mandate. Sacramento needed money. The asset test came back.
| Situation | Asset limit as of January 1, 2026 |
|---|---|
| Single applicant | $130,000 |
| Married, one spouse in a facility (the applicant) | $130,000 |
| The at-home spouse (community spouse resource allowance) | $157,920 |
Two exemptions that change the whole picture
A primary residence stays exempt. One vehicle stays exempt. So a family whose wealth is a house in Reseda and a 2016 Camry may look wealthy on paper and still be well under the limit once you subtract what does not count. Run the actual math before you panic.
Why so much of what you are reading is wrong
Search Medi-Cal asset limit tonight and you will get three generations of answers stacked on top of each other. Some pages still quote $2,000, which was accurate through 2022. Some quote the 2022 interim figures. A lot of the newer ones, written during the two-year gap, cheerfully announce that California has no asset test, which was true when published and is not true now. Law firm blogs are the worst offenders, because nobody goes back and updates a post that is still ranking.
“I had a family last spring who did nothing for eight months because a very confident article told them assets no longer mattered. By the time they called me their mother had been private-paying $11,000 a month. Nobody had lied to them. The page was just old.”
Delia Vasquez-HartWhat the number actually means
The limit applies to countable resources, not to everything your parent owns. Exempt property sits outside the count. So the working question is never how much is Mom worth, it is how much of what Mom owns is countable, and that is a narrower list than most people expect.
$130,000 is also a meaningful cushion compared to the old $2,000 world. Plenty of Los Angeles families who would have needed aggressive planning under the old rules now qualify with modest adjustments, or with none at all. Do not assume you need a complicated restructuring before somebody has counted.
The transfer rules are the unsettled part
This is where I will not give you a clean answer, because there is not one yet. When the asset test disappeared, transfer penalties largely stopped mattering. Now that the test is back, the treatment of gifts and transfers is being sorted out, and guidance is still moving. Anyone quoting you a firm look-back period with total confidence is either working from out-of-state rules or from memory. Confirm current guidance before you move a dollar.
Questions we get asked
My mother has $190,000 in savings. Is she disqualified?
She is over the single-applicant limit of $130,000 on those savings, but that is the beginning of the analysis, not the end. Her house and one car do not count. Some of that $190,000 may be in accounts that get treated differently. And there are lawful ways to spend down that do not involve giving money away. Get it counted properly first.
Does the $157,920 for the at-home spouse come on top of the $130,000?
Yes. Where one spouse is institutionalized, the applicant has a $130,000 limit and the community spouse has a resource allowance of $157,920. They are separate figures.
Is the house safe?
A primary residence remains exempt for eligibility purposes. Whether it is exposed later to estate recovery is a different question with a different answer, and it turns on whether the house passes through probate.
Should we transfer assets right now, before things change again?
Not on a hunch, and not tonight. Transfer rules following the reinstatement are in flux and must be confirmed against current guidance. A transfer made on bad information can cost you more than the delay would have.
Bring three things to a consultation and we can tell you where your parent stands in that first meeting: the last two bank statements for every account, the deed or a property tax bill for the house, and any long-term care insurance policy. Call (310) 555-0219 or book the free 45-minute consultation, video or at the Wilshire office.