How to Protect a Spouse From Losing Everything If the Other Needs a Nursing Home in Colorado
How to Protect a Spouse From Losing Everything If the Other Needs a Nursing Home in Colorado
When one spouse needs nursing home care, many Colorado families fear the same thing: Will the healthy spouse be left with nothing? The good news is that Colorado Medicaid has built-in protections to prevent spouses from becoming financially devastated when long-term care is needed.
Spousal Protections Under Colorado Medicaid
Medicaid recognizes that a healthy spouse (called the “community spouse”) still needs income and assets to live independently. When the other spouse enters a nursing home (the “institutionalized spouse”), special spousal impoverishment rules come into play.
These rules allow the community spouse to keep a portion of the couple’s savings, their primary home, and a monthly income allowance. This means the spouse staying at home is not required to spend down every asset before Medicaid will help cover long-term care costs.
What the Community Spouse Can Keep
In most Colorado cases, the community spouse may be able to:
Keep the primary residence
Retain a portion of countable savings and investments
Receive a portion of the institutionalized spouse’s income if their own income is too low
However, not all assets are treated the same, and mistakes can be costly.
Common Mistakes Families Make
Many families unintentionally create problems by:
Giving money to children too late in the process
Selling assets without understanding Medicaid rules
Waiting until the nursing home stay becomes urgent
Colorado Medicaid has a five-year look-back period, which means financial decisions made years earlier can still affect eligibility.
How Beneficent Helps Colorado Families
At Beneficent, we help families understand their options before costly mistakes are made. We walk alongside you to protect your spouse, your home, and your financial future — while guiding you through the Medicaid process with clarity and compassion.
If your family is facing long-term care decisions, getting informed early can make all the difference.