McDonald v. Illinois Department of Human Services

This Medicaid case asks us to resolve a tension between the need to preserve scarce public medical resources for the truly needy and the desire of families to preserve their assets while qualifying for medical assistance through a perceived legitimate loophole. This tension manifests itself in this case where an applicant’s eligibility for medical assistance was delayed by the imposition of a penalty period by the transfer of nearly $125,000 in cash gifts in the year leading up to her application for benefits.

In June 2007, plaintiff, J. Brian McDonald, acting pursuant to power of attorney,…