Updated August 27, 2026. Quick answer: Texas calls it the SPRA. “The SPRA is the greater of: one-half of the couple’s combined countable resources, not to exceed the maximum resource amount set by federal law; or the minimum resource amount set by federal law.” The handbook states the mechanism precisely and states no dollar amount anywhere in the section — it points at “the maximum and minimum SPRA amount set by federal law” instead, which is why this page quotes a calculation and not a number.
What Texas actually sets out
| What the state provides | What it says |
|---|---|
| Texas’s name for it | the Spousal Protected Resource Amount (SPRA), MEPD Handbook § J-4400 |
| The calculation | “To determine the amount of the SPRA, divide the countable resources by two and the result will be the amount to compare to the maximum and minimum SPRA amount set by federal law.” |
| The test | “The SPRA is the greater of: one-half of the couple’s combined countable resources, not to exceed the maximum resource amount set by federal law; or the minimum resource amount set by federal law.” |
| Which date | “Calculate the SPRA as of the assessment date described in Section J-4300 , Assessment Date.” |
| Before or at application | “Calculate the SPRA as described above whether the SPRA is calculated at the time of application for Medicaid or before an application for Medicaid is filed.” |
| Exclusions | “Resource exclusions determined in the SPRA are the same exclusions used in the eligibility determination at application.” |
| The home | “The equity value of the home does not impact spousal impoverishment policy and treatment of the home during the assessment process.” |
How it works in practice
- The calculation is the standard one, stated in two sentences that are worth reading together. First the arithmetic: “To determine the amount of the SPRA, divide the countable resources by two and the result will be the amount to compare to the maximum and minimum SPRA amount set by federal law.” Then the test that bounds it: “The SPRA is the greater of: one-half of the couple’s combined countable resources, not to exceed the maximum resource amount set by federal law; or the minimum resource amount set by federal law.” Half is the candidate; the federal floor is the guarantee; the federal ceiling is the cap.
- The result does not depend on when you ask, and Texas says so expressly. “Calculate the SPRA as described above whether the SPRA is calculated at the time of application for Medicaid or before an application for Medicaid is filed.” A couple who request an assessment before applying get the same figure they would get at application, computed the same way.
- The date is not the date of the request. “Calculate the SPRA as of the assessment date described in Section J-4300 , Assessment Date.” The handbook’s companion section fixes that date at 12:01 a.m. on the first day of the month in which the first continuous period in an institutional setting began, so resources are counted at an instant that may be well in the past.
- The rules for what counts do not change between the assessment and the decision. “Resource exclusions determined in the SPRA are the same exclusions used in the eligibility determination at application.” What is excluded when the SPRA is computed is excluded again when eligibility is determined.
- The home sits outside this calculation altogether. “The equity value of the home does not impact spousal impoverishment policy and treatment of the home during the assessment process.” Home equity is dealt with by its own policy, and the assessment does not turn on it.
- This page states no dollar figures for Texas because the handbook section states none. It refers to “the maximum and minimum SPRA amount set by federal law” and leaves the amounts to federal publication, which changes them every January.
What the allowance is for, and why protecting the spouse at home is a federal requirement rather than a state kindness, is explained on the community spouse resource allowance page. The date the couple’s resources are counted is its own subject, on the snapshot date page, and the monthly income allowance that runs alongside it is on the MMMNA page. This page is the record for Texas.
What this page does not settle
- This page reads one handbook section. J-4400 is the calculation; the assessment date, the resource-counting rules, the expansion provisions and the appeal route are separate sections of the same chapter and were not quoted here.
- This page reads one source: Texas Medicaid for the Elderly and People with Disabilities Handbook, Section J-4400, SPRA Calculation (Texas Health and Human Services Commission). It is the state’s own publication on this rule, but no state puts its whole treatment of a couple’s resources in a single document, and a detail that decides your case may sit in one this page did not read.
- The resource rule is one hurdle. The income rules for the spouse at home are separate and are decided on their own numbers, the level-of-care test is separate again, and the transfer-of-assets look-back is separate from all of them. Clearing this rule does not clear any of the others.
- Every quotation here was read against the source on August 27, 2026. The federal minimum and maximum figures are reset each January, and a state can revise its own rule without the page around it changing. Open the source before you rely on a number.
Eligibility is decided by the state agency on the whole file, not by one rule on one page. Nothing here is legal advice, and no one should move, retitle or spend a couple’s savings on the strength of a web page.
Sources
The source above was retrieved and read against the state text on August 27, 2026. Every quotation on this page was checked against those bytes.
Related: Texas’s Long-Term Care Partnership Program status; a separate, policy-based way some families protect assets alongside this spend-down allowance.