Editorial guides
Practical articles, checklists and explanations built around Italian nursing homes, urgent placement, waiting lists and home-care decisions.
Featured guide
In most cases it is not a stranger on the phone — it is someone close. The signs, the mistake to avoid when you raise it, and the steps that actually stop the money leaving.
Pennsylvania is not an income-cap state: there is no Miller Trust to set up here, because income above the limit is handled through the MNO-MA spend-down instead. Here are the 2026 limits, the spousal protections and the distinction that saves families weeks.
Georgia offers two routes above the income limit — a medically needy spend-down at $317 a month, or an optional Miller Trust — and the cheaper one is often overlooked. Here are the 2026 limits, the spousal protections and how to choose between them.
California is the state where national Medicaid advice is most likely to be wrong. Medi-Cal has no income cap, an asset limit of $130,000 reinstated in January 2026, and a 30-month look-back rather than five years. Here are the 2026 figures and what they mean for a nursing-home stay.
New York's Medicaid figures look nothing like the national rule of thumb: the asset limit is $33,038, not $2,000, and the income limit is $1,836 with the Excess Income Program or a pooled trust as the route above it. Here are the 2026 numbers for a nursing-home stay and who processes the application.
Texas Medicaid is an income-cap program: a dollar over $2,982 a month and you are not eligible — unless a Qualified Income Trust is set up first, and it cannot be done retroactively. Here are the 2026 limits, the spousal protections and the trust step most guides leave out.
Florida's Institutional Care Program caps income at $2,982 a month, and above it a Qualified Income Trust is the only route — one that cannot be set up retroactively. Here are the 2026 limits, the spousal protections and the personal needs allowance families actually keep.
When only one spouse needs nursing-home care, Medicaid rules are specifically designed to prevent the other spouse from being left with nothing. Here is how that protection works.
Most long-term nursing home care in the US is paid by Medicaid — but only once assets fall under your state’s limit. Here is how the spend-down really works, what the 5-year look-back penalises, and the legal moves that protect a spouse.
A free local resource most families overlook — how your county AAA can help with assessments, benefits and options counseling.
Most read
In most cases it is not a stranger on the phone — it is someone close. The signs, the mistake to avoid when you raise it, and the steps that actually stop the money leaving.
From two time zones away you cannot tour ten facilities or drop in daily. The local network to build before the crisis, the documents to hold, and how to use the visits you do make.
Almost nobody moves into a nursing home by decision — they move after a fall. The changes in order of effect, what Medicare and Medicaid actually pay for, and the signs home is no longer enough.
Clothes that survive an industrial laundry, the paperwork that actually matters, and the one page about her life that is worth more than everything else. Plus the classic first-day mistakes.
