Updated September 6, 2026. Quick answer: Ohio’s Medicaid home equity limit for a single nursing-home applicant is $752,000 as of 2026. Ohio’s own document states this figure directly and labels it the maximum amount of equity an individual can have in a home; this session confirms it matches the lower end of the federal range under 42 U.S.C. Section 1396p(f), roughly $378,000 below the $1,130,000 ceiling some other states elect. Above that figure, you are not eligible for nursing-home Medicaid unless a spouse, minor child, or disabled child of any age lives in the home.
What Ohio’s own transmittal says
Ohio Administrative Code 5160:1-6-02.1 sets its own base of $560,000 effective 3/1/2024, escalating annually by the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U); a distinct mechanism from most states in this family, which simply republish the federal figure. This transmittal is the Ohio Department of Medicaid’s own computation of that formula for 2026, and it lands on the identical number the plain federal minimum reaches: $752,000.
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How our partner relationships workThe genuine wrinkle this page discloses
Ohio’s own escalation formula is genuinely distinct from the federal minimum’s own base year and computation, yet MEPL 191 shows the two producing the same 2026 result. That is a real coincidence of arithmetic, not evidence Ohio simply copies the federal number; this session independently ran nothing to verify the coincidence holds in prior years, and does not claim it always will.
| Citation | Ohio Department of Medicaid, Medicaid Eligibility Procedure Letter (MEPL) No. 191, ‘2026 Social Security Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA),’ issued November 21, 2025, effective January 1, 2026 |
| What it says | “HOME EQUITY LIMIT AMOUNTS 2025 2026 Maximum amount of equity an individual can have in a home $730,000 $752,000” |
This page covers whether the home counts as a resource while you are alive and applying. What happens to the same house after death is a separate question: see the Medicaid estate recovery by state table, which gives Ohio’s row for what the state can reach and the authority for it. And if a spouse, or a minor or disabled child, still lives in the home, the equity limit on this page does not apply at all: see what the law protects for a spouse who stays at home.
Figures verified against Ohio Administrative Code 5160:1-6-02.1 (effective March 1, 2024, codes.ohio.gov), Ohio Department of Medicaid MEPL 191 (issued November 21, 2025), and the CMS Informational Bulletin of April 27, 2026 on September 30, 2026.
Every citation on this page was read directly from the state’s own Medicaid agency, administrative code, or official eligibility manual this session. General information, not legal or financial advice; a figure this specific can change with a budget cycle or a federal inflation adjustment, and a county or state caseworker has the final say on any individual application.