Medicaid Eligibility Claim Raises Possible Church-State Issues

In a recent case, In re The Fair Hearing of Hoffer, (Dec. 6, 2005), the Montana Supreme Court was faced with the question of whether seven residents of King Colony Ranch, a Hutterite Colony, met the test for limited resources in order to be eligible for the Family-Related Medicaid Program. The majority found that the Colony’s assets are held in trust for the benefit of its members, and remanded the case for determination of eligibility in light of this conclusion. The dissent, however, argued that any duty that the Colony has to support the Claimants is a religious, not a legal, one. The dissent argued that to conclude otherwise would require the court to make a religious inquiry in violation of the Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause of the U.S. Constitution and of Article II, Section 5 of the Montana Constitution. A story on the case was carried by Wednesday's Billings Gazette.