Florida Medicare Savings Program Asset Limits: What Counts and What's Exempt

The 2026 Resource Limits

Florida's Medicare Savings Programs (QMB, SLMB, QI) all share the same resource limits in 2026:

• Individual: $9,950 in countable resources
• Couple: $14,910 in countable resources

QDWI uses lower limits — $4,000 individual / $6,000 couple — but this program applies only to working disabled individuals paying Part A premiums.

These limits are updated annually based on the Consumer Price Index, per F.A.C. Rule 65A-1.712. They've been climbing steadily — a few years ago the individual limit was closer to $8,400.

What Doesn't Count

The exclusions are where most families find their parent qualifies after assuming they wouldn't:

Primary home — completely excluded regardless of market value. A parent owning a $400,000 house in Tampa still qualifies as long as they maintain ownership interest and it's their primary residence. Florida's Medicaid long-term care home equity cap ($752,000) does not apply to Medicare Savings Program determinations.

One vehicle — excluded regardless of value or use. A parent driving a $25,000 car is fine. A second vehicle gets counted at fair market value minus any loan balance, unless it's needed for medical transportation or employment.

Household goods and personal effects — furniture, clothing, appliances, jewelry. All excluded.

Burial plots — excluded for the applicant, spouse, and immediate family members.

Designated burial funds — up to $2,500 per person in a separately identifiable account earmarked for burial expenses. If your parent hasn't set this aside yet, opening a dedicated burial fund account before applying can reduce countable assets by $5,000 for a couple.

Irrevocable pre-need burial contracts — excluded with no dollar cap. If your parent has a prepaid funeral arrangement that's irrevocable, the entire value is exempt.

Term life insurance — no cash value, so fully excluded.

Whole life insurance — excluded if total face value across all policies is $1,500 or less per person. If the combined face value exceeds $1,500, the cumulative cash surrender value becomes fully countable.

What Counts Against the Limit

Everything else that's liquid or convertible to cash:

• Checking and savings accounts — the balance as of the application month
• Certificates of deposit (CDs)
• Stocks, bonds, mutual funds, brokerage accounts
• Non-home real estate — the equity value (market value minus any mortgage or liens)
• Life insurance cash surrender value — only when total whole life face value exceeds $1,500

Retirement accounts require closer attention. An IRA or 401(k) is countable if your parent has the legal right to withdraw a lump sum. But if the account is placed into mandatory periodic payout status — meaning regular, scheduled distributions — the principal is excluded from the resource test. Only the monthly distribution counts, and it counts as income rather than a resource.

Practical implication: a parent with $30,000 in an IRA who converts it to a mandatory payout schedule removes that $30,000 from the asset test entirely. The monthly distribution gets counted as unearned income against the income limits instead.

The Joint Account Trap

This catches families off guard. Under F.A.C. Rule 65A-1.712(5)(c), a bank account held jointly by your parent and an adult child is presumed owned entirely by the applicant. If your parent's name is on your savings account "for convenience" — say, so you can pay bills if they're hospitalized — DCF counts the entire balance against your parent's resource limit.

The presumption can be rebutted by submitting financial tracing records showing that the funds in the account came from the child's own deposits, not from the parent. Bank statements showing consistent deposits from the child's paycheck, for example, can establish this. But the burden of proof is on the applicant, and it takes documentation — a verbal explanation won't suffice.

If your parent's name is on joint accounts that would push them over the $9,950 limit, consider removing them from accounts that contain only the child's funds before applying. Timing matters — DCF looks at the asset picture as of the application month.

Spending Down vs. Restructuring

If your parent is slightly over the resource limit, there are legitimate ways to restructure before applying:

• Prepay burial expenses in an irrevocable contract — unlimited exclusion
• Open a designated burial fund — up to $2,500 per person excluded
• Pay off debts — reducing bank balances by paying existing obligations (mortgage, car loan, credit cards, medical bills) is straightforward and expected
• Make needed purchases — a new appliance, home repair, or dental work reduces countable assets for a legitimate purpose
• Convert an IRA to periodic payouts — removes the principal from the resource test

What DCF will flag: large transfers to family members close to the application date. Unlike Medicaid long-term care (which has a 60-month lookback), MSP does not have a formal lookback period for asset transfers. But unexplained large withdrawals just before applying can trigger a documentation request and delay processing.

For a complete asset classification worksheet and strategies that keep your parent under the resource limit without running afoul of DCF, the Florida Medicare Savings Programs & Extra Help Guide walks through every category.

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