Updated September 3, 2026. Quick answer: yes, through Elderly and Adults with Disabilities Waiver (MaineCare Benefits Manual Section 19), CMS control number ME.0276. Medicaid does not pay the facility’s room and board either way; only the care and service component.
What Maine covers
| Waiver / state plan option | Elderly and Adults with Disabilities Waiver (MaineCare Benefits Manual Section 19), CMS control number ME.0276 |
|---|---|
| Covers an assisted living setting? | Yes: “You may qualify for long-term care coverage if you live in apartment or small adult family care home and get assisted living services.” |
| Room and board | Never covered by Medicaid, in Maine or any state; see below. |
The room-and-board split
Federal law is the floor every state builds on: “The Secretary may by waiver provide that a State plan approved under this subchapter may include as “medical assistance” under such plan payment for part or all of the cost of home or community-based services (other than room and board) approved by the Secretary” (42 U.S.C. §1396n(c)(1), Social Security Act §1915(c)). The words in parentheses do the work: whatever a state’s waiver pays for inside an assisted living community, it is not the rent, the meals, or the room itself. That portion stays the resident’s own to fund, out of income, savings, or a family contribution; the waiver only ever reaches the care and service layer on top of it. We did not find Maine’s own materials restating this point in the sources read this session; the federal rule above still governs.
The waitlist
Not published by the state in the materials reviewed this session.
What you get to keep: the personal needs allowance
Not published in the materials reviewed this session. This is the amount of a waiver participant’s own income the state lets them keep for personal spending after the rest goes toward the cost of their care; it varies by state because each state sets its own figure inside the federal floor.
What this doesn’t answer
Maine’s own consumer page directly confirms coverage of assisted-living-type settings (small adult family care homes) but does not specify whether that coverage runs through the Section 19 waiver or a separate MaineCare mechanism, so the funding mechanism is reported with that caveat rather than asserted precisely. Neither waitlist status nor a personal needs allowance dollar figure was found in the primary sources opened this session.
Figures verified against the Maine DHHS Older Adults and Adults with Disabilities page, the ME.0276 waiver renewal notice, and 42 U.S.C. 1396n(c)(1) on September 30, 2026; the waitlist status, the personal needs allowance, and which MaineCare mechanism funds assisted living were not re-checked.
Sources
Read September 3, 2026.
Same question, other states: Massachusetts · Michigan.
Related: what assisted living actually costs · assisted living vs. staying home vs. a CCRC · why home care has a waitlist and a nursing home doesn’t.
General information drawn from each state’s own Medicaid agency and federal statute, not legal, tax or financial advice. Medicaid is administered state by state; waiver names, coverage decisions, waitlists and allowance amounts change by state budget and legislative action. This page cannot see your own state’s current caseload. We are not a law firm, a benefits counselor, or a fiduciary, and this is not personalized advice. We sell nothing on this page and earn nothing from it.
Related: Maine’s Medicaid Personal Needs Allowance, the amount a nursing-facility resident keeps from their own income each month.
Related: use the Medicaid spend-down calculator to estimate how much you would need to spend down to qualify for long-term-care Medicaid in your state.