How long the money lasts at the nursing home.

The facts, in one place.

Six quotable sentences on the road to Illinois Medicaid, 2026 figures.

1. Illinois Medicaid pays for nursing-home care once countable assets are down to $17,500 for the person in care. A spouse at home may keep $143,172 on top of that (the community spouse resource standard), the home up to $752,000 of equity, one car, and personal effects.
2. Countable assets are everything else: bank and brokerage accounts, retirement accounts, cash value in life insurance, a second property. Illinois counts a couple's assets together whichever spouse owns them.
3. The runway is arithmetic: countable assets above what may be kept, divided by the monthly gap between the care bill and the income that pays toward it.
4. Example: a couple with $400,000 of countable assets, a $9,000 monthly private-pay rate, and $3,000 of monthly income: $239,328 to spend down at $6,000 a month, about 40 months, a little over 3.3 years.
5. Once on Medicaid, the person in care keeps $60 a month, and the spouse at home may be allotted enough of the couple's income to reach $4,067 a month (the maintenance allowance).
6. Spending down is not the only path: paying off the home, buying an exempt car, prepaying a funeral, and certain annuities and transfers are what elder-law attorneys plan, inside the 60-month look-back that the penalty calculator covers.

What may be kept.

The limits that set the spend-down.

How the spend-down works.

Medicaid is the payer of last resort for nursing-home care, and it begins only when a person's countable assets are down to a small limit. Illinois protects a spouse who stays at home: a fixed amount of countable assets, the home up to an equity limit, one car, and personal effects, plus an income allowance once the other spouse is on Medicaid. Everything else, whichever spouse owns it, counts and must be spent, on care or on anything else of value, before eligibility.

The runway is the division: the countable assets above what may be kept, over the monthly gap between the care bill and the income that goes toward it. It is a planning number, not an application. Inside it, elder-law attorneys convert countable assets into exempt ones (paying down the mortgage, replacing the car, prepaying a funeral, certain annuities) and manage the look-back on gifts that the penalty calculator covers, all to leave the spouse at home with more.

Methodology.

1. Inputs. Countable assets for the household, the facility's monthly private-pay rate, the household's monthly income that will go toward the bill, and whether a spouse stays at home.
2. What may be kept. The applicant's resource limit, plus the community spouse resource standard when there is a spouse at home, both from the Illinois figures in the Medicaid record.
3. The spend-down. Countable assets less what may be kept, never below zero.
4. The runway. The spend-down over the monthly gap (the bill less income); when income covers the bill there is no runway to compute, and when assets are already within the limits it is zero.
5. Validation. A couple's protected amount and months by hand, a single applicant's limit, income that covers the bill, and assets already under the limit. A transcription error fails the build.
6. Not modeled. The look-back and penalty, income allocation to the spouse at home, the home equity limit and other exempt assets (the user excludes them), rising costs, estate recovery, and the application itself. Educational, not advice.

Sources.

1. 1. Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, Provider Notice, January 22, 2026 — Prevention of Spousal Impoverishment Standards for 2026. The Illinois community spouse resource standard ($135,648 to $143,172) and maintenance needs allowance ($3,948.50 to $4,066.50), effective January 1, 2026. Retrieved September 4, 2026; verified September 4, 2026.
2. 2. Illinois Department on Aging (Senior Health Insurance Program), 2026 Illinois Medicaid Income Standards & Resource Limits. The AABD Medical resource limit ($17,500, one person or two) and the 2026 home equity limit ($752,000). Note: this sheet prints the federal maximum resource figure, not the Illinois standard; see the HFS notice. Retrieved September 4, 2026; verified September 4, 2026.
3. 3. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, CMCS Informational Bulletin, December 9, 2025 — 2026 SSI, Spousal Impoverishment, and MSP Resource Standards (with the 2026 standards chart). The federal 2026 range every state's figures sit inside: community spouse resources $32,532 to $162,660; maintenance allowance $2,643.75 to $4,066.50; home equity $752,000 to $1,130,000. Retrieved September 4, 2026; verified September 4, 2026.
4. 4. Illinois Department of Human Services, Manual Release #24.02 — Personal Needs Allowance increase to $60 for LTC nursing home residents (effective January 1, 2024). The $60 monthly personal needs allowance for skilled nursing facility residents. Retrieved September 4, 2026; verified September 4, 2026.
5. 5. Illinois Department of Human Services, Policy Manual 15-06-02-b — Personal Needs Allowance and Supportive Living Program Room and Board. The $120 personal needs allowance in a Supportive Living Program setting, and the $60 nursing facility figure. Retrieved September 4, 2026; verified September 4, 2026.
6. 6. Illinois Department of Human Services, Policy Manual 07-02-20-d — Penalty Period Due to Non-Allowable Transfers. How the penalty period is computed: the uncompensated amount divided by the person's monthly private-pay cost at the facility where they live, partial months included. Illinois uses the facility's rate, not a statewide divisor. Retrieved September 4, 2026; verified September 4, 2026.
7. 7. Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, Highlights of New Eligibility Requirements for Long Term Care. The five-year look-back, and when a penalty period begins (the later of the transfer or the date the person is in a facility and otherwise eligible). Retrieved September 4, 2026; verified September 4, 2026.
8. 8. United States Code (Cornell LII), 42 U.S.C. § 1396p — Liens, adjustments and recoveries, and transfers of assets; (c) the 60-month look-back and penalty; (f) the home equity limit. The federal look-back and penalty framework the Illinois rules implement, and the home equity limit with its exception while a spouse or dependent child lives in the home. Retrieved September 4, 2026; verified September 4, 2026.

Revision history.

This tool reads the Medicaid record; its history is below.

September 4, 2026

First release: the 2026 Illinois spousal impoverishment standards from the HFS January notice, the resource and home equity limits from the Department on Aging sheet, the personal needs allowances from IDHS, the look-back and penalty method from HFS and the IDHS policy manual, and the federal 2026 range from CMS. Noted the Aging sheet's federal-maximum figure against the HFS Illinois standard.

Canonical address: https://consideratecapital.com/tools/medicaid-runway-illinois