By James Okafor · July 27, 2026
New York's spousal impoverishment rules exist specifically so the spouse staying at home isn't left with nothing. Here are the 2026 CSRA and MMNA figures, and why this planning looks nothing like planning for an unmarried parent.
Why a spouse's situation is genuinely different
Planning for Medicaid long-term care for a married person is not the same exercise as planning for an unmarried parent, and treating it the same way risks leaving a healthy spouse with far less than the law actually allows them to keep. New York, like every state, applies federal spousal impoverishment protections specifically so that the spouse remaining in the community -- generally called the community spouse -- is not required to spend down to poverty just because their husband or wife needs nursing-facility or community-based long-term care.
These protections exist because, absent them, a financially stable couple could be forced to liquidate a lifetime of joint savings, retirement accounts, and even a portion of the family home's value, leaving the spouse who is not receiving care with nothing to live on. The rules are specifically designed to prevent that outcome, within defined limits.
The Community Spouse Resource Allowance (CSRA)
The Community Spouse Resource Allowance lets the community spouse keep a portion of the couple's combined countable assets, separate from what the spouse applying for Medicaid must spend down. For 2026, the maximum federal CSRA is $162,660, and the minimum state CSRA is $74,820 -- the community spouse generally keeps the greater of the state minimum or half of the couple's countable resources, up to the federal maximum.
In practical terms: if a couple has $200,000 in combined countable assets, the community spouse can generally keep $100,000 under the half-of-resources rule, since that falls between the $74,820 minimum and the $162,660 maximum. If the couple has $500,000, the community spouse's allowance is capped at $162,660 -- half of $500,000 would exceed the maximum, so the ceiling applies instead. These figures are set under NYSDOH GIS 26 MA/03, effective January 1, 2026, and are reviewed and adjusted periodically, so confirm the current figures before relying on them for a specific filing.
The Minimum Monthly Maintenance Needs Allowance (MMMNA)
Separate from the CSRA, which protects assets, the Minimum Monthly Maintenance Needs Allowance protects monthly income. For 2026, New York's Community Spouse Minimum Monthly Maintenance Needs Allowance is $4,066.50 per month. This is the minimum monthly income the community spouse is entitled to keep, and in some circumstances income can be shifted from the spouse receiving Medicaid-covered care to the community spouse specifically to reach this minimum.
This detail surprises a lot of families: it means a healthy spouse is not automatically expected to survive only on their own income if that income falls short of the MMMNA. New York's rules provide a mechanism to supplement the community spouse's income up to that floor, using income that would otherwise count toward the applying spouse's own contribution toward care costs.
How this differs from planning for an unmarried parent
For an unmarried applicant -- a widowed or divorced parent, for example -- there is no community spouse, and no CSRA or MMMNA calculation applies. The asset test is simpler and less protective: New York's non-MAGI Medicaid asset limit is $2,000 for a single applicant, with no equivalent allowance carved out for a second household member, since there generally isn't one relying on the same income and assets in the same way.
This is precisely why spousal cases require more careful, earlier planning than an unmarried parent's situation does. Get the CSRA and MMMNA calculations done correctly, with current figures, before assuming how much a family can protect -- an elder law attorney familiar with New York's spousal impoverishment rules is worth the consultation, given how much is at stake in getting these numbers right.
Other figures worth knowing in the same planning conversation
A nursing home resident's Personal Needs Allowance is $50/month in New York -- unchanged since the 1980s and among the lowest in the country, though this figure applies to the spouse receiving Medicaid-covered nursing facility care, not to the community spouse's protected income described above. The Maximum Family Member Allowance, a separate figure that can apply when other dependent family members are involved, is $882/month for 2026.
For a couple considering community-based Medicaid options rather than nursing facility care, New York City's MLTC special income standard for housing expenses is $1,790/month as of January 1, 2026 (distinct from Long Island's $1,701) -- a different figure serving a different purpose than the MMMNA, worth not confusing with it. And separately, New York's home equity limit for nursing facility and community-based long-term care Medicaid is $1,130,000 -- relevant for couples where the family home represents a large share of joint assets.
Timing matters more than families realize
Spousal impoverishment planning is far easier to do correctly before a Medicaid application is filed than to fix afterward. Asset transfers made close to or during the application process can trigger New York's Medicaid look-back review, a separate issue from the CSRA/MMMNA calculations themselves, and can create penalty periods that delay eligibility. This is exactly the kind of planning that benefits from professional guidance well before a crisis, not during one.
A couple who suspects long-term care may become necessary -- after a diagnosis, a hospitalization, or simply as part of ordinary aging -- should have this conversation with an elder law attorney while both spouses have full capacity to participate in decisions, rather than waiting until an application is already underway.
The family home is treated differently than other assets
For a married couple, the primary residence generally remains protected while the community spouse continues living in it, separate from the CSRA calculation applied to other countable assets like savings and investment accounts. New York's home equity limit for nursing facility and community-based long-term care Medicaid is $1,130,000 -- a figure relevant mainly for couples whose home represents significant equity, since exceeding that limit can affect eligibility even where the community spouse continues to reside there.
This is another area where the married-couple picture diverges from an unmarried applicant's: for a single applicant with no community spouse remaining in the home, home equity and occupancy rules can work differently, which is one more reason spousal cases require their own dedicated analysis rather than borrowing rules of thumb from an unmarried parent's situation.
A worked example: how the CSRA actually plays out
Take a hypothetical Staten Island couple with $350,000 in combined countable assets when one spouse needs nursing facility-level Medicaid care. Half of that is $175,000, which exceeds the $162,660 federal maximum -- so the community spouse's protected allowance is capped at $162,660, not $175,000. The couple would need to address the remaining roughly $187,340 through legitimate spend-down or, in some cases, further legal planning, before the applying spouse meets New York's $2,000 individual asset limit.
Compare that to a couple with $120,000 in combined countable assets. Half of that is $60,000, which falls below the $74,820 state minimum -- so the community spouse keeps the full $74,820 minimum instead of only half, since the rule specifically protects at least that floor regardless of how the fifty-fifty split would otherwise land. These two examples show why the actual number a specific couple can protect depends entirely on their own asset picture, not a single flat percentage -- which is exactly why professional guidance on the real numbers matters more than general information.
Where to start on Staten Island
NY Connects Staten Island, run by the Community Agency for Senior Citizens (CASC) at (718) 489-3954, can help a couple understand which Medicaid long-term-care pathway -- nursing facility Medicaid, Managed Long Term Care, or the NHTD waiver -- is relevant to their situation, though CASC does not provide the legal advice an elder law attorney would for the specific CSRA and MMMNA calculations. NYC Aging (DFTA), reachable through 311 or (212) 244-6469, can also help connect a couple to benefits counseling as a starting point before a formal legal consultation.
