NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
 
BILL NUMBER: A6049
SPONSOR: McMahon
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the social services law, in relation to medical assist-
ance to certain disabled individuals
 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
The purpose of this bill is to allow a disabled individual from. age 16
to 65 to have additional resources and still qualify for Medicaid.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 amends subparagraph 5 of paragraph (c) of subdivision 1 of
section 366 of the social services law, as added by section 1 of part 0
of chapter 56 of the laws of 2013, to adjust the Medicaid asset test for
Working People with Disabilities to 150% of income threshold level used
to determine Medicaid eligibility; this would be 207% of the federal
poverty level.
Section 2 establishes an effective date.
 
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ORIGINAL AND AMENDED VERSION (IF APPLICABLE):
Click here to enter text.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
In the SFY 22-23 budget, the medically needy income level was increased
to 138% of the federal poverty level. This change impacted the Aged,
Blind, and Disabled (ABD) who are covered in the Non-MAGI Medicaid popu-
lation. However, the resource limit for Working People with Disabilities
(WPD) was, unintentionally, not changed to align the medically needy
resource level increase. The current WPD resource level is set at
$20,000 for an individual and $30,000 for families with a household of
two. This bill would effectively raise that limit to 207% of the federal
poverty level, which would be approximately $28,000 for an individual
and $38,000 for a family of two.
This bill would align the resource limit for the WPD population to the
same level as the resource limit for the ABD population to fix a techni-
cal issue and ensure that the Working People with Disabilities group
receives a similar increase in the medically needy resource level as was
done in the FY23 budget.
 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2022: S9442 (Rivera) - Referred to Health
2022: A10476 (McMahon) - Passed Assembly
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
None.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
6049
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
March 31, 2023
___________
Introduced by M. of A. McMAHON -- read once and referred to the Commit-
tee on Ways and Means
AN ACT to amend the social services law, in relation to medical assist-
ance to certain disabled individuals
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subparagraph 5 of paragraph (c) of subdivision 1 of section
2 366 of the social services law, as added by section 1 of part D of chap-
3 ter 56 of the laws of 2013, is amended to read as follows:
4 (5) A disabled individual at least sixteen years of age, but under the
5 age of sixty-five, who: would be eligible for benefits under the supple-
6 mental security income program but for earnings in excess of the allow-
7 able limit; has net available income that does not exceed two hundred
8 fifty percent of the applicable federal income official poverty line, as
9 defined and updated by the United States department of health and human
10 services, for a one-person or two-person household, as defined by the
11 commissioner in regulation; has household resources, as defined in para-
12 graph (e) of subdivision two of section three hundred sixty-six-c of
13 this title, other than retirement accounts, that do not exceed [twenty
14 thousand dollars for a one-person household or thirty thousand dollars
15 for a two-person household, as defined by the commissioner in regu-
16 lation] one hundred fifty percent of the income amount permitted under
17 subparagraph seven of paragraph (a) of subdivision two of this section,
18 for a one-person or two-person household, as defined by the commissioner
19 in regulation; and contributes to the cost of medical assistance
20 provided pursuant to this subparagraph in accordance with subdivision
21 twelve of section three hundred sixty-seven-a of this title; for
22 purposes of this subparagraph, disabled means having a medically deter-
23 minable impairment of sufficient severity and duration to qualify for
24 benefits under section 1902(a)(10)(A)(ii)(xv) of the social security
25 act.
26 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD02416-01-3