Eligibility for and premiums under the Medical Assistance purchase plan and disregarding assets in an independence account and retirement benefits for purposes of determining eligibility and cost-sharing requirements under a number of Medical Assistance and long-term care programs. (FE)

What it would have done

Summary by the Legislative Reference Bureau, the Legislature's nonpartisan drafting office. It's their wording, not ours.

Under current law, an individual who would be eligible for the Medical Assistance (MA) program based on eligibility for supplemental security income (SSI), but who is not eligible for SSI because he or she is employed and has too much earned and unearned income to be eligible, may pay premiums for coverage under MA if his or her family's net income is less than 250 percent of the poverty line and his or her assets do not exceed $15,000, excluding certain assets. This program is known as the MA purchase plan (MAPP). When determining the value of the individual's assets for continued eligibility under MAPP, the Department of Health Services (DHS) excludes amounts in a DHS-approved account that consists solely of savings from the individual's employment after the individual's coverage under MAPP began. These accounts are known as "independence accounts."

This bill makes changes to the eligibility and premium requirements under MAPP. Under current law, when determining whether an individual's net income is less than 250 percent of the poverty line, certain disregards are deducted from the individual's and his or her spouse's total earned income, then the individual's and his or her spouse's total unearned income is added, and then another general disregard is deducted. Under the bill, an individual's net income is determined by subtracting the same disregards as under current law from the individual's total earned and unearned income alone, then the individual's out-of-pocket medical and remedial expenses and long-term care costs, if any, are deducted. In addition, the bill provides that if an individual whose income is equal to or greater than 250 percent of the poverty line satisfies all of the other eligibility requirements, he or she is eligible for MAPP if DHS determines that his or her earnings are insufficient to replace all of the publicly funded benefits that he or she would actually receive in the absence of those earnings. The bill also requires DHS, when determining eligibility for MAPP, to exclude from assets, to the extent approved by the federal government, income or assets from retirement benefits that accumulated or were earned from employment income or employer contributions while the individual was employed and receiving MA coverage under MAPP.

Who's behind it

André Jacque, a Republican, is its author⁠.

1 more lawmaker signed on in support⁠.