Planning for long-term care in Wyoming has to start from the fact that this is an income-cap state, not a medically needy one. Both the institutional and Community Choices Waiver pathways use income at or below 300% of the Federal Benefit Rate as the eligibility line — and with Wyoming's 2026 individual SSI standard at $994, that works out to a $2,982 monthly cap. For anyone whose income runs above that figure, Chapter 18 permits a properly structured income trust, but it comes with a real condition attached: the Department must receive any trust funds remaining at the person's death, up to the total medical assistance that was paid on their behalf. That means an above-cap income situation calls for a Wyoming-specific income-trust review from the outset, not an assumption that ordinary medical spending will bring income down to the limit the way it might elsewhere.
Resource planning follows the basic SSI standards — $2,000 for an individual, $3,000 for a couple — but married couples facing a long-term-care admission can draw on federal community-spouse protections layered on top of state law. Wyoming statute protects the at-home spouse's resources up to the federal maximum, and CMS lists that 2026 maximum Community Spouse Resource Allowance at $162,660. Home equity is a separate and less settled question: Wyoming's statute sets a $500,000 starting figure that's required to be adjusted annually by the CPI-U, but no current 2026 agency-published adjusted number turned up in the public record for this project — which makes direct verification with the Department, rather than assuming the federal maximum automatically applies, a genuinely necessary step before finalizing a plan that depends on the home's value.