A study of lifetime nursing home use was conducted with data from Connecticut for a 9-year period, 1977-1986. By linking stays for individuals, we were able to make life table estimates of the total amount of time after age 65 expected to be spent by persons in nursing homes. Because these data were linked to Medicaid eligibility records, it was possible to determine the total amount of nursing home use that is paid for by Medicaid and to produce estimates of the risk of Medicaid spenddown. The lifetime risk of spenddown in nursing homes was estimated to be 21.5%, with a 14.4% incidence of spenddown in any given episode. The amount of time it took to spend down was longer than reported in several other studies.