How are spouses affected when their husband or wife must spend down resources to qualify for the ALTCS benefit?
Sometimes those who apply for Arizona Medicaid spend down their resources so that they may obtain ALTCS eligibility. A married applicant, however, could deprive the well spouse of the means to care for herself if he is not careful with this strategy. To prevent such a result, Arizona Long Term Care System protects well spouses by allowing married applicants to take what is called a Community Spouse Resource Deduction (CSRD). The CSRD ensures that a well spouse’s needs are met and that she is able to maintain her quality of life. With certain exceptions, the well spouse may keep one-half of the couple’s countable resources. For instance, the minimum CSRD is $21,912. This means that a couple with $35,000 in countable resources could keep the minimum CSRD of $21,912 for the well spouse because half of $35,000 falls below the minimum CSRD. Likewise, a couple with $100,000 in countable resources could keep $50,000 for the well spouse, as this is one-half of the couple’s total resources. On
