Updated September 5, 2026. Quick answer: Michigan’s asset limit for its enumerated long-term-care and waiver Medicaid categories, including the MA Waiver for the elderly and disabled, is $9,950 effective January 1, 2026, up from $9,660 in 2025. Other SSI-related Medicaid categories in Michigan still use the plain $2,000/$3,000 federal default, so which category covers a given applicant matters.
The $9,950 figure, and which categories it actually covers
Michigan’s Bridges Eligibility Manual (BEM) 400, “Assets,” states: “For an asset group of one: $9,950 effective January 1, 2026. $9,660 effective January 1, 2025…” This liberalized figure applies only to an enumerated list of MA category codes, including BEM 106 (the MA Waiver for Elderly and Disabled). The same manual states separately: “For other SSI-Related MA categories not already listed above, the asset limit continues to be: $2,000 for an asset group of one. $3,000 for an asset group of two.”
Why this page names the disclosed uncertainty rather than smoothing it over
BEM 106 covers Michigan’s home-and-community-based Elderly and Disabled waiver population, and this session’s research could not fully confirm from BEM 400 alone whether a Michigan applicant going directly into a nursing facility, rather than the waiver, is governed by the same $9,950 figure or by a different enumerated category. Anyone in this position should confirm which category their own application falls under before relying on either number.
The annual increase itself is the real pattern
The move from $9,660 (2025) to $9,950 (2026) shows Michigan raises this figure most years, unlike the federal $2,000 default, which has not moved since 1989.
| Citation | Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, Bridges Eligibility Manual (BEM) 400, “Assets” (enumerated liberalized-asset-limit category list including BEM 106, 132, 135, 155, 157, 158, 163–167, 170–172) |
| What it says | “For an asset group of one: $9,950 effective January 1, 2026. $9,660 effective January 1, 2025… Other SSI-Related MA Category Asset Limits… For other SSI-related MA categories not already listed above, the asset limit continues to be: $2,000 for an asset group of one. $3,000 for an asset group of two.” |
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 Michigan 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.