Can I Get MassHealth if I Own a Home in Massachusetts?

“Will I be able to access MassHealth if I own a home?” The answer is yes, in most instances, but with particular caveats and implications, especially if you’re claiming long-term care benefits. The fact that you own a home won’t typically exclude you from MassHealth, but its value will influence eligibility for long-term care and the state can recover against it in the future.

Massachusetts Medicaid, MassHealth, covers a broad array of healthcare benefits to qualified low-income families and individuals. Income is the main consideration for younger adults and families, and homeownership generally does not come into play. For seniors and those in need of long-term care, assets are a determinative issue, and that is where the home comes into play.

MassHealth: Your Home is an Exempt Asset

For most MassHealth programs, including those that entail basic healthcare, your home is usually classified as an “exempt asset.” That is, its value does not count towards MassHealth asset limitations. The exemption exists if you and/or your spouse, if applicable, reside in the home.

For MassHealth long-term care—either in a nursing home or through HCBS waivers—you most often exempt a primary home if there are certain conditions. A single individual who relocates to a nursing home can exempt the home from the assets list by asserting “intention to return” and home equity under $1,097,000 (2025 limit). MassHealth generally regards that intent even if there is minimal chance to ever return.

If the spouse, a child under 21, or any permanently disabled or blind child is a resident of the home, MassHealth’s long-term care asset test generally disregards the home regardless of value. The policy serves to protect families by enabling the stay-at-home or dependent spouse to remain in possession of the home.

Home Equity Limits for Long-Term Care

While your home of primary residence is generally exempt, there is a major restriction on single individuals who seek MassHealth. If you are a single person who is seeking MassHealth coverage for nursing home care, your home equity interest (the value of the home based on the current market value, minus the amount of debt like a mortgage that is outstanding against it) generally cannot exceed a limit. As of 2025, that limit is $1,097,000. If the home equity is above that threshold, you may have to reduce the equity, possibly by borrowing against the property or through a reverse mortgage, to become eligible for MassHealth. That is a very important consideration when posing the question, “Can I obtain MassHealth if I own a home?”

It’s crucial to make a distinction between your principal place of residence and any other real estate holdings you have, including a vacation home or investment property. These are typically regarded as countable assets and will contribute to overall assets for purposes of determining MassHealth eligibility. The value of these properties may place you over the asset limits, primarily for the purposes of long-term care benefits, which are generally $2,000 in the case of an individual.

The “Look-Back” Period and Home Transfers

One of the key issues in the question “Can I still keep MassHealth if I own a home?” is the five-year look-back. MassHealth, similar to all Medicaid programs, looks at any asset transfers that occurred over the past five years. That’s to say that if you’re applying for long-term care MassHealth, the state will look at all financial transactions, including gifts and asset transfers for less than market value, that occurred over the past five years.

If you transfer the ownership of your home (or any asset) within these five years to make yourself eligible for MassHealth, it may subject you to a penalty period of ineligibility. The length of the penalty equals the amount transferred divided by the average cost of a month in a Massachusetts nursing home. It is a very important consideration if you are considering transferring property prospectively in expectation of a future need for MassHealth.

MassHealth Estate Recovery: The Home “Gets You Going”

Having a home will rarely exclude someone from MassHealth eligibility for long-term care, but you will have to look at the Estate Recovery Program. As the saying goes, “if they don’t take it when you’re here, they’ll collect after you’re deceased.” Following the death of a recipient of long-term care, the state is generally required to recover from assets that pass through the individual’s probate estate. For most, the estate with any value that remains in probate is the home.

MassHealth can place a lien against your home to secure repayment of benefits. The lien has to be paid out of the proceeds of a home you sell before you die; if you do not, the agency can seek reimbursement from your estate after you die.

There are, nevertheless, some instances where estate recovery could be waived or postponed. For instance, recovery is generally postponed if there is a surviving spouse or a child under 21, permanently disabled, or blind who lives in the house. Low-income heirs who have resided in the home sufficiently to make them eligible under a hardship waiver are often eligible. A Massachusetts law that became effective September 6, 2024, further reduces the burden by making MassHealth estate recovery apply solely to federally mandated claims for nursing-home and certain other long-term-care expenses.

Strategies for Protecting Your Home

Due to the complexities, advance planning is necessary if you want to safeguard your home and also allow access to MassHealth benefits. Techniques that can be used include:

• Irrevocable Trusts: Putting your house into irrevocable trust can protect it from estate recovery, as the home will no longer be part of your countable estate. That said, you must put it into the trust prior to the five-year look-back rule to not pay a transfer penalty. This is a critical piece of information to keep in mind when considering, “Can I have MassHealth if I have a home?”
  
• Life Estates: allows you to place the house in the names of your beneficiaries (e.g., your kids) but reserve the ability to reside there for life; upon death, title automatically passes to them and bypasses probate, and usually protects against estate recovery. As with irrevocable trusts, this has to be accomplished outside the look-back period.
  
• Caregiver Child Exemption: In some cases, if a child has resided with you and has served to keep you from requiring institutionalization for a time, the home could pass to them free of penalties.
  
• Long-Term Care Insurance: Though not covering your home directly, a qualified long-term care policy can cover the cost of care, possibly forestalling or even eliminating the necessity of MassHealth, thereby saving your assets, including your home. Certain MassHealth requirements also exempt the home from estate recovery if the homeowner has unused long-term care benefits upon a move to a nursing home.

Expert Guidance from Brunelle Medicaid Planning

Our skilled elder law and Medicaid planning professionals are dedicated to explaining how the specifics of your case apply, how to navigate the complexities of MassHealth policies, and create a personalized plan. We work hard to help you qualify for the MassHealth long-term care benefits you require and protect those invaluable assets of yours, including the home that you value most, for those you love.

Planning ahead of time and in a knowledgeable way is crucial to optimizing choices and gaining peace of mind. Call Brunelle Medicaid Planning today to schedule a consultation – let us assist you in safeguarding what’s most important.