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Illinois Private-Pay Runway Calculator

2026 Illinois figures · reviewed September 4, 2026

Estimates how many months of nursing-home costs a household can pay before Illinois Medicaid could take over. About

In plain words. Medicaid pays for nursing-home care only after most of a person's savings are spent. Illinois lets the person keep a small amount, lets a spouse still at home keep a larger fixed amount plus the house and a car, and counts everything else. This tool takes the countable savings, the monthly cost of care, and the household's income, and divides the amount that must be spent by the monthly shortfall to give the months of private pay ahead.

Why it matters. Families facing a nursing-home bill want to know two things: how long the money lasts, and what the spouse at home will be left with. The runway answers the first and shows the second, and it is the number to bring to an elder-law attorney.

An example. A couple with $400,000 in savings, a $9,000 monthly bill, and $3,000 of monthly income: about $240,000 must be spent at $6,000 a month, roughly 40 months, before Medicaid could begin, with the spouse at home keeping about $160,000.

Where it stops. It is division, not an application. It does not include the look-back on gifts, the planning that elder-law attorneys do to protect more, income rules for the spouse at home, or the cost rising each year. The figures are this year's Illinois numbers. Everything it leaves out.

$

Bank, brokerage, and retirement accounts, the cash value of life insurance, and any second property. Leave out the home, one car, and personal belongings.

The private-pay rate the facility quotes.

Social Security, pensions, and required retirement withdrawals that would be paid to the facility.

Is there a spouse at home?

The spouse at home may keep $143,172 of countable assets, plus the home and a car.

Months of paying privately before Medicaid could begin
40 months
You would need to spend $239,328 before Medicaid could begin, which is about 3.3 years of paying privately. That is your $400,000 of countable assets less the $160,672 the household may keep, spent at a gap of $6,000 a month between the bill and your income.
Your countable assets, split into what may be kept and what must be spentA bar of $400,000 in two parts. $160,672 may be kept and $239,328 must be spent down.May be keptMust be spent
Assets the household may keep
$160,672
$143,172 for the spouse at home plus $17,500 for the person in care
Monthly gap between the bill and income
$6,000
$9,000 bill less $3,000 income
Monthly income allowance for the spouse at home
$4,067
Income the spouse at home may be allowed to keep once Medicaid begins

The runway is the plain arithmetic of spending down to the limits. It is also where planning starts. Paying down the mortgage, prepaying a funeral, replacing a car, and certain annuities turn countable assets into exempt ones without making a gift. Gifts made within the 60-month look-back period carry a penalty, which the other Illinois tool on this site computes. An elder-law attorney's job is to make the runway longer for the spouse at home.

This uses the 2026 Illinois Medicaid limits for the person in care, for the spouse at home, and for the spouse's income allowance, and it holds costs and income flat. It leaves out the home, a car, and other exempt assets, which you leave out of the entry, and it does not model the shift of income to the spouse, the look-back penalty, estate recovery, or the application itself. Educational, not advice.

This is a simplified model, not your actual tax return or plan. It only knows what you type in, leaves out rules that may apply to you, and cannot weigh the other facts and trade-offs a real decision depends on. Before you act, talk with a professional who knows your whole situation.

Educational only, not investment, tax, or legal advice. Results are hypothetical estimates that vary with each use and over time and are not guaranteed accurate or complete. Using this tool creates no client relationship with Considerate Capital, and the site that linked here is not affiliated with it. By using it you agree to the tool terms.