The Texas Care Funding Playbook
How to pay for a nursing home in Texas, and protect your family's savings and home, explained in plain English. The rules families most often get wrong, and how to get them right, before you pay a lawyer to learn them.
- Written by the Ellery Care Research Team, not a law firm selling you services
- Educational information, with every figure sourced to Texas HHS
- We take no money from any care facility
What's inside
Five parts, built to be used in a crisis or read start to finish.
Understand the landscape
Who actually pays (and why Medicare doesn't), and the three questions that decide everything.
Does your parent qualify?
The income cap and Miller Trust, the $2,000 asset limit, and what really counts.
Protecting what you can, legally
The five-year look-back, honest spend-down, protecting the home from estate recovery, and the rules for married couples.
Other money on the table
VA Aid and Attendance and long-term care insurance most families overlook.
Take action
A document checklist, the questions to ask an attorney, and fill-in worksheets.
26 pages, in plain English
No legalese. Written the way a knowledgeable social worker would explain it to you.
Worksheets you can fill in
An income and asset worksheet, a transfer timeline, and a document checklist to bring to an attorney.
Current and sourced
Every 2026 Texas figure is drawn from Texas HHS and the American Council on Aging, and cited.
If a parent needs care and the cost is frightening, start here.
You do not have to become an expert, and you do not have to lose the house or the savings to qualify for help. The playbook shows you how the rules actually work, and exactly what to do next, so you can walk into an elder law attorney's office already understanding your options.