---
title: "Texas Long-Term Care Insurance | Funding LTC Marketplace"
url: https://fundingltcmarketplace.com/states/texas/long-term-care-insurance/
description: "Texas LTC insurance rules, the Texas Partnership Program's dollar-for-dollar Medicaid asset protection and the 30-day free-look period."
last_updated: 2026-10-20
author: George A. Mellendorf, CLTC, LTCP (Central States Insurance Services, Inc.)
publisher: Funding LTC Marketplace
note: Educational content; not legal, tax or financial advice. Markdown copy of the HTML page at the URL above.
---
Texas · LTC Insurance

# Texas Long-Term Care Insurance

Last updated 2026-10-20

Long-term-care insurance in Texas falls under 28 Texas Administrative Code, Chapter 3, Subchapter Y, which governs individual and group LTC insurance and related products. The Texas Long-Term Care Partnership Program itself is administered by HHSC under 1 Texas Administrative Code Section 358.355 (1 TAC section 358.355).

Under that Partnership Program, the amount of resources shielded from Medicaid eligibility calculations equals — dollar for dollar — the benefits already paid out by a qualifying Partnership policy. That's a direct, one-to-one resource disregard, though it doesn't erase every other Medicaid financial rule an applicant still has to satisfy (1 TAC section 358.355).

## Texas figures

- Free-look period: 30 days

## Does Texas have a Long-Term Care Partnership program?

**Yes.** Texas takes part in the Long-Term Care Partnership program created by the federal Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA). DRA Partnership states follow consumer-protection standards drawn from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) Long-Term Care Insurance Model Act and Model Regulation. A Partnership-qualified policy gives you **dollar-for-dollar asset protection**: for every dollar the policy pays in benefits, Texas Medicaid can disregard a dollar of your assets when it decides eligibility, and the same amount is protected from estate recovery after death.

**How the protection works (illustrative):** if a Partnership policy pays $200,000 in benefits before you apply for Medicaid, Medicaid can disregard $200,000 of your assets on top of the state's regular asset limit, and that same amount is protected from Medicaid estate recovery later.

### What makes a policy Partnership-qualified

- It's a **tax-qualified** long-term care policy under Internal Revenue Code § 7702B.
- It meets the state's Partnership consumer-protection standards and is issued while you're a resident of a Partnership state (each state sets its own start date and residency rule).
- It carries the required **inflation protection** for your age when you buy: compound annual protection if you're under 61, some level of protection from 61 through 75, and optional protection at 76 or older.

### If you move to another state

Texas appears on the New York State Partnership for Long-Term Care's reciprocity map as a Partnership state that honors reciprocity. In general, a Partnership policy bought in another reciprocal state keeps its dollar-for-dollar protection here, and a Texas policy keeps it in other reciprocal states.

**The original four:** California, Connecticut, Indiana and New York started their Partnership programs before the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. Their programs were designed separately from the NAIC-based DRA model, so their rules differ (for example, some offered Total Asset protection), and California doesn't take part in reciprocity. If you bought a policy in one of these states, confirm how it's treated with the Medicaid agency where you'll apply.

Not every insurer offers Partnership-qualified policies in every state. When you compare quotes, ask whether each policy is Partnership-qualified in Texas.

## Sources and official resources

- [Texas Department of Insurance: Long-Term Care](https://www.tdi.texas.gov/consumer/long-term-insurance.html)
- [Texas Department of Insurance: Long-Term Care Resources (Partnership)](https://www.tdi.texas.gov/consumer/hicap/hicapltc05.html)
- [Texas HHSC MEPD Handbook: Appendix XII, Nursing Facility and HCBS Waiver Information](https://fhb.hhs.texas.gov/handbooks/medicaid-elderly-people-disabilities-handbook/appendix-xii-nursing-facility-home-community-based-services-waiver-information)
- [New York State Partnership for Long-Term Care: State Partnership Programs and Reciprocity map](https://nyspltc.health.ny.gov/reciprocitymap.htm)
- [U.S. Code: 42 U.S.C. § 1396p (liens, estate recovery, transfers of assets, Partnership disregard)](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/1396p)

Rules and figures change. Confirm current details with the agency before you act.

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