Updated September 5, 2026. Quick answer: Illinois’s Medicaid asset limit for Aged, Blind and Disabled applicants is $17,500, effective May 12, 2023, nearly nine times the $2,000 federal default most states still use.
The $17,500 figure and where it comes from
The Illinois Department of Human Services Policy Manual states plainly, at PM 07-02-01 (Asset Limits): “Effective 05/12/2023, the asset limit for Medical cases is $17,500.” This replaced the plain SSI-linked $2,000 figure Illinois had used before that date.
The spend-down program that exists alongside it
Illinois separately runs a Medically Needy spend-down pathway (IDHS Policy Manual PM 15-08-00/15-08-01), confirmed by an HFS consumer brochure (HFS591SP) that lists nursing-home services among the eligible spend-down expenses. That pathway addresses excess income, not excess assets, and does not change the $17,500 asset figure itself.
The one open question this page discloses rather than guesses at
The $17,500 figure was confirmed for Illinois’s general Medical cases asset limit; whether an institutional/nursing-facility-specific chart states a different number was not independently confirmed this session, and secondary sources describing them as identical were not treated as sufficient to assert that as fact here.
| Citation | Illinois DHS Policy Manual, PM 07-02-01, “Asset Limits” (AABD Medical) |
| What it says | “Effective 05/12/2023, the asset limit for Medical cases is $17,500.” |
This page covers the applicant’s own asset limit. The amount an at-home spouse gets to keep is a separate, usually much larger, figure: see the Illinois community spouse resource allowance and what happens to a spouse’s money when the other spouse needs a nursing home.
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 rule amendment, and a county or state caseworker has the final say on any individual application.