Medi-Cal · 2026 renewals
For two years, your savings didn’t count.On January 1, they started counting again.
California removed the Medi-Cal asset limit at the start of 2024 and brought it back at the start of 2026. Your renewal this year will ask for documentation it hasn’t asked for since 2023. Most people affected don’t know it’s coming, because the last thing anyone told them was that it no longer mattered.
What actually changed
Before 2024
An asset limit applied. For many people it was $2,000, and it had been for decades.
Jan 1, 2024
California eliminated the asset limit entirely. Eligibility became income-only. Two years of enrollees were told, correctly, that their savings didn't matter.
Jan 1, 2026
The asset limit returned at $130,000 for one person, plus $65,000 for each additional household member.
Through 2026
Each enrollee's first annual renewal of the year asks for asset documentation. It rolls out by renewal month, so it reaches people in April that it didn't reach in February.
$130,000
one person
Plus $65,000 for each additional household member — so $195,000 for a couple. Your home, one vehicle, and personal belongings stay exempt.
Who this reaches
The non-expansion programs: Aged, Blind and Disabled; Medi-Cal with a Share of Cost; the 250% Working Disabled Program; Long-Term Care; and the Medicare Savings Programs.
If you’re on SSI-linked Medi-Cal, a different and lower limit already applied and still does. Children and expansion adults aren’t affected.
The part that trips people up
There are two different rules here, and they don’t say the same thing.
Rule one · renewals
Transfers you made between January 1, 2024 and December 31, 2025 will not be counted at your 2026 renewal. You can’t be required to document them.
Rule two · long-term care
For nursing facility coverage, a look-back of up to thirty months still applies to assets transferred for less than they were worth — and it can create a period where you’re not eligible at all.
Hearing the first rule and assuming it covers the second is the mistake, and it’s an expensive one. Which rule applies to you depends on facts about your situation, and sorting that out before your renewal is worth considerably more than sorting it out afterward.
What I do about it
The Renewal Readiness Review
One flat fee, one defined piece of work, finished before your letter arrives rather than after it.
- I find your renewal month and what it will actually ask you for.
- We inventory what counts and what's exempt, in writing.
- I assemble the documentation packet so you're not hunting for a 2019 statement the week it's due.
- I explain how the two rules above apply to your situation — what they are, not what you should do about them.
- Anything that needs an elder law attorney gets flagged now, while there's still time to act on it.
One thing I can’t do, and won’t. I can tell you what the rules are. I cannot advise you on transferring, spending down, or restructuring anything to qualify — that is Medi-Cal planning, it is the practice of law, and in California doing it without a license is a crime. When your situation calls for it, I’ll refer you to an elder law attorney and come to the meeting with you. More on where I stop.
Find out if this reaches you.
Half an hour on the phone, free. Bring your Medi-Cal notice if you have one. If your renewal isn't affected, that's a good thing to know for certain rather than to hope.