Cite as: 534 U. S. 473 (2002)
Opinion of the Court
ment and the CSMIA to operate at discrete stages: The former remedies a shortfall in the income possessed by the community spouse prior to eligibility, while the latter provides further relief posteligibility if the previous CSRA enhancement proves inadequate. See Brief for Respondent 18. Because the Wisconsin statute requires imputation of the CSMIA to the community spouse before additional assets may be reserved, Blumer concludes, the statute reverses the priority established by the MCCA.
In accord with the Secretary, we do not agree that Congress circumscribed the (e)(2)(C) hearing in the manner Blumer urges. Although that hearing is conducted pre-eligibility,9 its purpose is to anticipate the posteligibility financial situation of the couple. The procedure seeks to project what the community spouse's income will be when the institutionalized spouse becomes eligible. See Tr. of Oral Arg. 14 (officer conducting (e)(2)(C) hearing makes a calculation that "concerns the post eligibility period"; question is will "the at-home spouse . . . have sufficient income in the post eligibility period, or does the resource allowance need to be jacked up in order to provide that additional income"). The hearing officer must measure that projected income against the MMMNA, a standard that, like the CSMIA, is operative only posteligibility. §§ 1396r-5(b)(2), (d)(3).
In short, if the (e)(2)(C) hearing is properly comprehended as a preeligibility projection of the couple's posteligibility situation, as we think it is, we do not count it unreasonable for a State to include in its estimation of the "community
9 That the hearing must occur preeligibility is dictated by the mechanics of the process; in order to preserve the assets, if any, that will be necessary for the community spouse's support in the posteligibility period, a couple must know in advance what resources it need not and should not expend before the institutionalized spouse becomes Medicaid eligible.
491
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