Utah Medicare Savings Program Asset Limits: What Counts and What Doesn't

The most common reason families don't apply for Utah's Medicare Savings Programs is a number they remembered wrong. They think the asset limit is $2,000 — that's traditional Medicaid. The MSP limit is nearly five times higher.

2026 Resource Limits

All three Medicare Savings Programs (QMB, SLMB, QI) use the same resource thresholds:

• Individual: $9,950
• Married couple: $14,910

These limits update January 1 each year, aligned with the federal statutory resource floors published by CMS.

What DWS Counts

Countable resources are measured on the first day of each calendar month. DWS includes:

• Checking and savings accounts — the full balance
• Certificates of deposit (CDs) — full value
• Stocks, bonds, and mutual funds — current market value
• Jointly held accounts — DWS presumes 100% ownership by the applicant unless you provide documentation showing the co-owner's proportional contributions
• Life insurance cash surrender value — only if the total face value across all policies exceeds $1,500 per person
• Secondary vehicles — counted at fair market equity value

What DWS Excludes

These don't count toward the $9,950/$14,910 limits:

• Primary home — fully excluded as long as the applicant or spouse lives there or intends to return.
• One vehicle — excluded regardless of value, as long as someone in the household uses it for transportation
• Burial spaces — for the applicant and immediate family
• Burial funds — irrevocable burial contracts are excluded up to $1,500 per person
• Retirement accounts distributing periodic payments — if an IRA or 401(k) is actively paying out regular distributions covering both principal and interest, the remaining balance is excluded. The distributions themselves count as monthly unearned income.

The Retirement Account Question

This catches families off guard. A $50,000 IRA sitting untouched is a countable resource. That same IRA set up to pay monthly distributions is excluded from the resource count — but the monthly payments are counted as income.

The calculus depends on the numbers. Converting a lump-sum retirement account into periodic distributions can bring your parent under the resource limit while potentially keeping income within MSP thresholds. Whether that works depends on the distribution amount relative to the income ceiling.

Jointly Held Accounts

If your parent's name is on a bank account alongside a child or other relative, DWS starts with the assumption that the full balance belongs to your parent. You can rebut this with documentation — deposit records, withdrawal patterns, or statements showing the co-owner's regular deposits. Without documentation, the full amount counts.

Estate Recovery and MSP Assets

Families often avoid applying because they fear the state will take the house. Under federal law and Utah administrative rules, Medicare Savings Program benefits (QMB, SLMB, QI) are explicitly exempt from Medicaid Estate Recovery. DWS cannot file a lien or property claim against the home to recover premiums, deductibles, or coinsurance paid through an MSP.

Estate recovery applies only to full Medicaid long-term care services. If your parent receives QMB-Only — meaning MSP benefits without full Medicaid — there is no estate recovery exposure at all.

The Utah Medicare Savings Programs & Extra Help Guide includes an asset calculation worksheet that walks through each category, plus guidance on how jointly held accounts and retirement distributions are evaluated.

See more Utah guides →