Medicaid medically needy: count a child's deemed parental resources without SSI's own-resource and immigration gates #10478

Problem

After #10370, is_medically_needy_for_medicaid adds ssi_resources_deemed_from_ineligible_parent to a child's resources, so a blind or disabled child counts the parents' resources above SSI's allowance ($2,000 for one parent, $3,000 for two; 20 CFR 416.1202(b)(1)). That variable carries SSI's allocation gates, which decide how SSI divides parental resources among SSI-eligible children. A child gets no deemed resources when:

• the child's own countable resources exceed the SSI individual limit ($2,000), because ssi_resources_deemed_from_ineligible_parent only allocates to a child whose ssi_countable_resources is within it;
• the child fails SSI's immigration test (a citizen or is_ssi_qualified_noncitizen), in is_ssi_resource_deeming_child;
• ssi_resource_deeming_child_is_ineligible is set.

Medicaid applies SSI methodology to count resources (42 CFR 435.601(b), 435.845(a)) but tests them against its own standard. In the states whose medically needy individual resource limit is above $2,000 (DC, FL, IA, MD, MN, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NY, PA and RI in the parameters), a disabled child with, say, $2,500 of their own and parents holding $20,000 is deemed nothing and can pass, when the parents' $17,000 excess should count. A noncitizen child that Medicaid covers but SSI does not is deemed nothing too.

The SSI division among several children (POMS SI 01330.200 B) also applies, which suits SSI but should be checked for Medicaid.

Proposed fix

Compute a Medicaid deemed-parental-resources amount without SSI's own-resource and immigration gates: the excess of co-resident ineligible parents' resources over the one- or two-parent allowance, for a blind or disabled child under 18, reusing the parent-pool helper in ssi_resources_deemed_from_ineligible_parent.py. Use it in is_medically_needy_for_medicaid and, once #10470 lands, in is_optional_senior_or_disabled_asset_eligible. Add YAML cases in a state with a limit above $2,000 (for example New York) with the child's own resources between $2,000 and the state limit.

Related

• Count blind people and use the individual or couple in the Medicaid medically needy test #10370 (medically needy financial unit), Medicaid aged, blind and disabled pathway: count a child's deemed parental resources in the asset test #10470 (the optional aged, blind and disabled pathway's asset test).
• Encode the Medicaid medically needy financial unit for aged, blind and disabled applicants (42 CFR 435.602(a)(2)(i), 435.831, 435.845; 20 CFR 416.1202(b)) (PE-US PR 10370) TheAxiomFoundation/rulespec-us#1931, interpretation on SSI allocation gates.