Updated September 3, 2026. Quick answer: yes, through MI Choice Waiver (CMS waiver MI.0233.R06.00). Medicaid does not pay the facility’s room and board either way; only the care and service component.
What Michigan covers
| Waiver / state plan option | MI Choice Waiver (CMS waiver MI.0233.R06.00) |
|---|---|
| Covers an assisted living setting? | Yes: Residential settings include: Assisted Living Facilities (ALFs), Adult Foster Care (AFCs) homes, Homes for the Aged (HFAs) and Independent Retirement Apartments. |
| Room and board | Never covered by Medicaid, in Michigan 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. Michigan’s own materials say the same thing directly: “All MI Choice services… specifically exclude room and board except for the Respite service. Waiver agencies do not remit payments for room and board if such is received from the residential services provider.” (MI Choice Waiver Renewal (MI.0233.R06.00), p.262).
The waitlist
Waitlisted: a 4-tier priority system; no current published headcount : “There is a waiting list for MI Choice services.”
Paying for care is the harder half
What a waiver covers is only part of the problem, because room and board still has to come from somewhere, and an adviser can look at income, savings and the likely timeline together before a placement decision is made.
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What you get to keep: the personal needs allowance
$60.00 ($90.00 for a veteran receiving VA Improved Pension): general Michigan LTC patient allowance; not independently confirmed as identical for MI Choice AL/AFC/HFA participants specifically a month: “The patient allowance for clients who are in, or are expected to be in, LTC and/or a hospital for the entire L/H month is $60… The patient allowance for a veteran is $90 per month.” 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
No primary source read this session publishes a current MI Choice waitlist headcount. The $60/$90 personal needs allowance is Michigan’s general long-term-care patient allowance; the waiver document’s own PNA field for AL/AFC/HFA participants specifically was not decodable, so whether it matches the general figure is not independently confirmed.
Sources
- Michigan MDHHS: MI Choice Waiver Renewal application (MI.0233.R06.00)
- Michigan Bridges Eligibility Manual, BEM 546, patient allowance
Read September 3, 2026.
Same question, other states: Minnesota · Mississippi.
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: Michigan’s Medicaid Personal Needs Allowance; the amount a nursing-facility resident keeps from their own income each month.