Starting July 1, 2027, California will slash the amount of savings and property that older adults and people with disabilities can hold while still qualifying for Medi-Cal, dropping the asset limit from $130,000 to just $21,000 for a single person. Couples will see their limit fall from $195,000 to $31,000, with an extra $1,550 allowed for each additional qualified household member. The change threatens to unravel coverage for people who rely on Medi-Cal for wheelchairs, home caregiving and other services that private insurance rarely covers.
The looming cutback is the latest swing in a policy that has changed dramatically in just a few years. California reinstated a $130,000 asset limit for older adults and people with disabilities effective January 1, 2026, according to Justice in Aging. That reinstatement itself marked a reversal of a broader elimination of asset testing — the Sacramento Bee reported that the state removed the asset test entirely between 2024 and 2025 before reinstating it at the start of this year, while other accounts have described the full elimination as taking effect either in 2024 or in January 2025. Now, under a budget lawmakers approved this year, the $130,000 threshold is set to collapse to $21,000 for individuals in 2027, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
The asset limit specifically targets people who qualify for Medi-Cal through age- or disability-related pathways — those who are 65 or older, blind, disabled, living in a nursing home or receiving long-term care, per the Chronicle's reporting. People who qualify under federal modified adjusted gross income rules, including many children, pregnant people, parents and working-age adults, are not subject to any asset test at all. Current enrollees won't feel the change all at once; the newspaper reports that asset limits will be assessed on a rolling basis as people come up for renewal, with Justice in Aging noting that current enrollees must first verify their assets at their 2026 renewal.
What Counts Against the Limit
Under the rules, a primary residence and one vehicle are exempt from the asset count, but a second home or car is not. Justice in Aging describes countable assets as cash, money in bank accounts, second vehicles, and homes or land the person does not live in — one home remains exempt only if the applicant actually lives in it. California's bill text, reviewed through California Legislative Information, spells out the $21,000 limit for a one-person household, $31,000 for two people, and the added $1,550 per additional household member, up to ten people.
For people like Elizabette Guéçamburu, the math is personal. She works part time as her family's bookkeeper on their farm in Patterson, where the family grows walnuts, almonds and alfalfa, according to CalMatters. The outlet reports her father was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2024, and that her family has since removed her from inheriting a portion of their 100-year-old farm so she can stay under the asset threshold — she may instead place money inherited from her grandmother into a special needs trust controlled by a family member.
“It's Really Expensive to Be Disabled”
“It's really expensive to be disabled,” Guéçamburu said, according to the same CalMatters report. A used wheelchair-accessible van can cost about $75,000, and home modifications like ramps and accessible bathrooms — which Medi-Cal does not cover — can run into the tens of thousands of dollars, the outlet reports. “I have to surrender our legacy just to have medical security and have the ability to live my life,” she said.
Julia Feinberg, a 37-year-old therapist in Oakland with a degenerative neuromuscular disorder, faces a similar squeeze. Medi-Cal currently covers her power wheelchair and about 19 hours of caregiving each day, per the outlet's reporting, and she would need to spend about $10,000 to meet the new asset cap. If she loses Medi-Cal, she would also lose access to a special disability program that pays for extra caregiving hours — a program that already has a multiyear waitlist. “We keep having to have the same fight over and over and over again,” Feinberg said.
A Budget Fight With a Lower Number on the Table
The $21,000 figure that lawmakers settled on is itself a retreat from a far steeper cut Gov. Gavin Newsom had sought. Amid a $12 billion budget shortfall, Newsom proposed reinstating a former $2,000 asset limit, arguing that Medi-Cal enrollment had come in at more than twice earlier estimates, per the same CalMatters account. The Legislature opposed that plan, and the two sides ultimately compromised on the $130,000 figure before lawmakers approved lowering it further to $21,000 for low-income seniors and people with disabilities.
The scale of Newsom's original proposal would have been dramatic: the California Budget & Policy Center calculated that cutting the limit to $2,000 for an individual represented a 98% reduction from the $130,000 threshold, and that someone with $10,000 in savings would have been forced to spend 80% of it just to qualify, according to the California Budget & Policy Center. The state's own Department of Finance estimated that a $2,000 limit would have caused 62,000 seniors and people with disabilities to lose Medi-Cal over two years, CalMatters reports — though the outlet also notes California had not released budget estimates before lawmakers approved the less severe $21,000 limit. When the $130,000 threshold was reinstated at the start of 2026, about 600 people lost coverage as a result, according to the same CalMatters reporting; advocates now expect more people to lose Medi-Cal once the $21,000 limit takes hold.
Advocates and Candidates Weigh In
Advocates say the asset rules unfairly target older people and people with disabilities, a group for which Medi-Cal often covers essentials — a single person's income eligibility limit sits at about $1,800 per month, while private home care can cost thousands of dollars monthly, according to AARP figures cited in the CalMatters report. Lindsay Imai Hong, California director for Hand in Hand, said organizers with the group are looking to the next governor for policy change, per the outlet.
The politics of the issue are already surfacing in the race to succeed Newsom. Steve Hilton has criticized California for extending Medi-Cal benefits, including coverage for immigrants without legal status, beyond what the state could afford, and he opposes the asset limits. Xavier Becerra did not answer specific questions about the asset-limit policy, but his campaign spokesperson, Johnathan Underland, blamed federal cuts from the Trump administration for squeezing California's Medi-Cal program and said Becerra would focus on protecting access to care and demanding savings that are, in Underland's words, real, measurable and sustainable. Becerra has floated raising taxes to reverse Medi-Cal cuts, though CalMatters notes he has not released detailed health policy plans. Camille Nguyen, an attorney with the Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County, was also referenced in the outlet's reporting on the policy's legal dimensions.
A Bigger Coverage Crunch Looms
The asset-limit rollback is unfolding alongside broader warnings about California's health coverage. Experts estimate that combined federal and state cuts could remove more than 2.2 million Californians from coverage over four years and roughly double the state's uninsured rate, according to CalMatters' reporting — a projection that aligns with separate analysis from the Los Angeles Times, which reported that California's uninsured rate could nearly double to almost 15% by 2030. A California Health Care Foundation report cited by the Chronicle similarly found that combined state and federal Medicaid policy changes could lead to up to 2 million Californians losing coverage.
Nationally, the stakes of these eligibility pathways are substantial. Nearly one in four Medicaid enrollees qualify because they are 65 or older or have a disability, according to KFF, and spending on people in those pathways topped $339 billion in 2021 — more than half of all Medicaid spending. Most states still require applicants in these categories to show limited savings, typically capped at $2,000 for an individual and $3,000 for a couple, far below even California's new $21,000 threshold.
