Married seniors and adults with disabilities overwhelming want to live at home and age in place. Increasingly, federal and state Medicaid rules have prioritized home and community-based services (HCBS) which allow people to stay in their homes and in their communities. Congress recently helped these efforts by expanding a Medicaid eligibility rule, known as the spousal impoverishment protection, to individuals eligible for HCBS. The protection makes it possible for an individual who needs a nursing home level of care to qualify for Medicaid while allowing their spouse to retain a modest amount of income and resources. However, the expansion of the spousal impoverishment protection is set to expire on December 31, 2023 unless Congress acts. This means that individuals who qualified under the expanded protection may lose access to Medicaid and to their HCBS and may be left with no choice but to move into institutional long-term care, away from their spouses.
Letting the spousal impoverishment protection expire will hurt families and force more people out of their homes and their communities. We urge Congress to make the expanded spousal impoverishment protection permanent so seniors and people with disabilities can age in place and with dignity.
Justice in Aging has created a fact sheet on the importance of the expanded HCBS spousal impoverishment protection and calling on Congress to make it permanent so seniors and people with disabilities can age in place and with dignity.
