480
Opinion of the Court
Similarly, assets held jointly by the couple were commonly deemed "available" in full to the institutionalized spouse.
At the same time, States generally did not treat resources held individually by the community spouse as available to the institutionalized spouse. Accordingly, assets titled solely in the name of the community spouse often escaped consideration in determining the institutionalized spouse's Medicaid eligibility. See H. R. Rep. No. 100-105, pt. 2, pp. 66-67 (1987).
As Congress later found when it enacted the MCCA in 1988, these existing practices for determining a married applicant's income and resources produced unintended consequences. Many community spouses were left destitute by the drain on the couple's assets necessary to qualify the institutionalized spouse for Medicaid and by the diminution of the couple's income posteligibility to reduce the amount payable by Medicaid for institutional care. See id., at 66-68. Conversely, couples with ample means could qualify for assistance when their assets were held solely in the community spouse's name.
In the MCCA, Congress sought to protect community spouses from "pauperization" while preventing financially secure couples from obtaining Medicaid assistance. See id., at 65 (bill seeks to "end th[e] pauperization" of the community spouse "by assuring that the community spouse has a sufficient—but not excessive—amount of income and resources available"). To achieve this aim, Congress installed a set of intricate and interlocking requirements with which States must comply in allocating a couple's income and resources.
Income allocation is governed by §§ 1396r-5(b) and (d). Covering any month in which "an institutionalized spouse is in the institution," § 1396r-5(b)(1) provides that "no income of the community spouse shall be deemed available to the institutionalized spouse." The community spouse's income is thus preserved for that spouse and does not affect
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