Many older Americans do not have the financial resources to pay for long term care in an assisted living or memory care facility. With the average cost of nursing home care in Connecticut costing about $156,000 per year, and in-home care averaging over $27,000 per year, you can see how a family’s financial resources can be quickly drained.
If you or a family member finds yourself in the difficult position where you need to figure out how you’re going to pay for long term care, Medicaid is often the inevitable answer. To qualify for Medicaid (also known as Title 19), you must meet both the asset and income eligibility rules. Each year brings a new set of important numbers for Medicaid in Connecticut.
What these Medicaid numbers enable you to do is to figure out:
- How much money and assets the community spouse can keep while still allowing the institutionalized spouse to qualify for Medicaid
- The dollar value of the counted assets the institutionalized spouse can have
- The average cost of a nursing home used to calculate penalties for gifts during the Look Back Period
- How much assets you can have to qualify for in-home care
- Asset limits to qualify for Medicare savings programs which help pay for Medicare premiums
The chart below shows you the specific numbers you need to figure out how much assets you can have and still qualify for Medicaid. You can also find a printer friendly version of the CT Medicaid Numbers for 2019 here.
The new figures will only have meaning, however, if you understand how they work. In a previous post on Medicaid eligibility numbers, we included a detailed example showing how the calculations are made.
UPDATED CONNECTICUT MEDICAID NUMBERS FOR 2019
January 1st of each year brings changes to several key Medicaid figures, which are adjusted for inflation. Below are the Connecticut Medicaid (also known as Title XIX and Husky) figures that apply as of January 1, 2019:
