Updated September 5, 2026. Quick answer: North Dakota’s individual asset limit for categorically- or medically-needy Aged, Blind and Disabled Medicaid, including nursing-home eligibility, is $3,000, higher than the $2,000 federal default, even though North Dakota otherwise applies more restrictive eligibility criteria than the SSI program.
The rule itself
North Dakota Administrative Code 75-02-02.1-26(1) states: “No one subject to an asset limit may be found eligible for Medicaid unless the combined equity value of the Medicaid unit’s assets… do not exceed: 1. For individuals who seek benefits as members of the categorically needy or medically needy aged, blind, and disabled groups: a. Three thousand dollars for a one-person unit.” This figure was last amended effective April 1, 2012.
The counterintuitive part: a higher number from a more restrictive state
A separate section, 75-02-02.1-05(1)(n), conditions SSI-linked Medicaid eligibility on meeting “the more restrictive Medicaid criteria” than the federal SSI program requires. That is the defining feature of what is commonly called 209(b) status. Most states that apply more restrictive criteria keep the asset figure at or below the $2,000 federal default; North Dakota’s own code instead sets its asset figure at $3,000, above it. The two provisions sit in the same chapter of the same state’s code.
What this page does not settle
The North Dakota code does not use the literal term “209(b)” anywhere in the sections read this session; that label describes the “more restrictive” statutory mechanism, not the state’s own terminology.
| Citation | North Dakota Administrative Code 75-02-02.1-26(1), “Asset limits”; related §75-02-02.1-05(1)(n) |
| What it says | “No one subject to an asset limit may be found eligible for Medicaid unless the combined equity value of the Medicaid unit’s assets… do not exceed: 1. For individuals who seek benefits as members of the categorically needy or medically needy aged, blind, and disabled groups: a. Three thousand dollars for a one-person unit.” |
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 North Dakota 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.