PolicyEngine / PolicyEngine/policyengine-us
AR Medicaid work requirement misses SSI-criteria disability in medically-frail exemption
- Dominant language
- Python
- Stars
- 162
- Forks
- 212
- Avg merge
- 3d 3h
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 97
Description
Part of #9330 (disconnected disability inputs audit). State analogue of #9329.
## Summary
Arkansas's Medicaid work requirement has the same defect as the federal variable in #9329: the disability exemption reads only the generic inputs, missing people flagged disabled under SSI's criteria — who are medically frail by federal definition.
## Current code
`policyengine_us/variables/gov/states/ar/dhs/medicaid/eligibility/ar_medicaid_work_requirement_eligible.py:34`:
```python
eligible_disabled = is_disabled | is_blind | is_incapable_of_self_care
```
(same trio in the `has_disabled_dependent` carer prong)
## Legal basis
Arkansas Works exempts those identified as medically frail. [42 CFR 440.315(f)](https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/42/440.315) requires the medically-frail definition to at minimum include "individuals with a disability determination based on Social Security criteria or in States that apply more restrictive criteria than the Supplemental Security Income program, the State plan criteria".
## Impact
A person with `meets_ssi_disability_criteria = True` but `is_disabled = False` is subjected to the 80-hour community-engagement test despite being medically frail by construction.
## Proposed fix
Add `meets_ssi_disability_criteria` to `eligible_disabled` in both the self-exemption and the dependent-carer prong (mirroring whatever fix lands for the federal variable in #9329), plus a regression test.
Contributor guide
Research direction
Start with policyengine_us/variables/gov/states/ar/dhs/medicaid/eligibility/ar_medicaid_work_requirement_eligible.py at line 34 and inspect both disabled eligibility expressions. Compare the federal analogue referenced in #9329, then add a regression test covering meets_ssi_disability_criteria for self-exemption and dependent-carer eligibility; done means medically frail people are not subjected to the 80-hour test.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- python
- Domain
- backend
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 2/5
- Estimated time
- 1-3 hours
- Activity status
- Active
- Clarity
- Clearly specified
- Newbie friendliness
- 78/100