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badstarhttp://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090211/ap_on_re_us/octuplets
I just have no words for this.
LOS ANGELES – A big share of the financial burden of raising Nadya Suleman's 14 children could fall on the shoulders of California's taxpayers, compounding the public furor in a state already billions of dollars in the red.
Even before the 33-year-old single, unemployed mother gave birth to octuplets last month, she had been caring for her six other children with the help of $490 a month in food stamps, plus Social Security disability payments for three of the youngsters. The public aid will almost certainly be increased with the new additions to her family.
Also, the hospital where the octuplets are expected to spend seven to 12 weeks has requested reimbursement from Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid program, for care of the premature babies, according to the Los Angeles Times. The cost has not been disclosed.
Word of the public assistance has stoked the furor over Suleman's decision to have so many children by having embryos implanted in her womb.
"It appears that, in the case of the Suleman family, raising 14 children takes not simply a village but the combined resources of the county, state and federal governments," Los Angeles Times columnist Tim Rutten wrote in Wednesday's paper. He called Suleman's story "grotesque."
On the Internet, bloggers rained insults on Suleman, calling her an "idiot," criticizing her decision to have more children when she couldn't afford the ones she had, and suggesting she be sterilized.
"It's my opinion that a woman's right to reproduce should be limited to a number which the parents can pay for," Charles Murray wrote in a letter to the Los Angeles Daily News. "Why should my wife and I, as taxpayers, pay child support for 14 Suleman kids?"
She was also berated on talk radio, where listeners accused her of manipulating the system and being an irresponsible mother.
"From the outside you can tell that this woman was playing the system," host Bryan Suits said on the "Kennedy and Suits" show on KFI-AM. "You're damn right the state should step in and seize the kids and adopt them out."
A call to Suleman's publicist Mike Furtney was not immediately returned.
In her only media interviews, Suleman told NBC's "Today" she doesn't consider the public assistance she receives to be welfare and doesn't intend to remain on it for long.
Also, a Nadya Suleman Family Web Site has been set up to collect donations for the children. It features pictures of the mother and each octuplet and has instructions for making donations by check or credit card.
Suleman, whose six older children range in age from 2 to 7, said three of them receive disability payments. She said one is autistic, but she has not disclosed the other youngsters' disabilities, and refused to say how much they get in payments.
In California, a low-income family can receive Social Security payments of up to $793 a month for each disabled child. Three children would amount to $2,379.
The Suleman octuplets' medical costs have not been disclosed, but in 2006, the average cost for a premature baby's hospital stay in California was $164,273, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The average cost for just one cesarean birth in 2006 was $22,762 in California. Eight times that equals $1.3 million.
For a single mother, the cost of raising 14 children through age 17 ranges from $1.3 million to $2.7 million, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is struggling to close a $42 billion budget gap by cutting services, declined through a spokesman to comment on the taxpayer costs associated with the octuplets' delivery and care.
Suleman received disability payments for an on-the-job back injury during a riot at a state mental hospital, collecting more than $165,000 over nearly a decade before the benefits were discontinued last year.
Some of the disability money was spent on in vitro fertilizations, which was used for all 14 of her children, Suleman said. Suleman said she also worked double shifts at the mental hospital and saved up for the treatments. She estimated that all her treatments cost $100,000.
A dozen states, including California, have laws requiring insurance companies to cover infertility treatment, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. But California does not require insurers to cover in vitro procedures. It's not clear what type of coverage Suleman has.
In the NBC interview, Suleman said she will go back to California State University, Fullerton in the fall to complete her master's degree in counseling, and will use student loans to support her children. She said she will rely on the school's daycare center and volunteers.
I don't even know where to start with this. How fucking irresponsible can you be?
You have no business bringing into the world more kids than you can support. That includes paying for their care, feeding, clothing, medical, whatever. it's one thing to have kid/s already and fall on hard times, or to have an oops. But clearly, if she had a hundred thousand dollars for fertility treatments, she wasn't in such hard times and "oops" doesn't result in fourteen kids in seven years.
How in the hell do you expect to support these kids? You say you don't expect to be on welfare for very long (oh, and you don't consider it "welfare"). You say you plan to support your kids with student loans. Ha!
How in the hell do you expect to find the time to do your school work? A master's degree isn't exactly underwater basketweaving, genius.
How in the hell do you expect to support fourteen kids on student loans?
How in the hell do you expect to pay back such astronomical loans while supporting your kids?
How in the hell do you expect to support your kids on one income? Hell, even if there was a father? It would still take quite the dual income to properly support these kids.
Hope you're okay with being a single mother for like, ever. Because no man in his right mind is going to find out that you've got fourteen kids and immediately run because 1. Fourteen kids! 2. she's looking for a daddy and another income and 3. did I mention the fourteen kids?
How in the hell do you expect to give these kids the time and attention they need?
How in the hell do you expect to be able to go anywhere? I mean, you can't even just go to the grocery store for a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk. What if you have to take kid/s to the doctor? Are you going to buy a bus? Where would you get the money for that?
Volunteers? Give me a break. You shouldn't be expecting people to volunteer to take care of kids that you shouldn't have in the first place.
How in the hell do you expect to remain healthy enough to even attempt to do any of this?
Oh my god, my brain is racing with incomprehension at the stupidity. I can't even begin to properly express what I'm thinking here. This is the sort of person who has no business having one kid (I don't care if she had the finances to take care of one kid, there's clearly a massive irresponsible streak there.)
And don't get me started on the doctor who performed the treatments (apparently, the doctors who delivered the babies are now speaking out in favor of tougher regulations on assisted reproduction...holy fucking cow, someone needs to.) this is...ridiculous. Has this doctor no regard for the health and well-being of anything but his bank account? He should be the one footing the bill for these kids, seeing as there was probably no one holding a gun to his head and forcing him to do it.
Oh, and Arnold, your tax payers deserve full disclosure on how much they're paying for this. So make with the fucking numbers already.
*Okay, so clearly, I have words...but what I've written here doesn't even begin to properly express what I'm thinking.
I just have no words for this.
LOS ANGELES – A big share of the financial burden of raising Nadya Suleman's 14 children could fall on the shoulders of California's taxpayers, compounding the public furor in a state already billions of dollars in the red.
Even before the 33-year-old single, unemployed mother gave birth to octuplets last month, she had been caring for her six other children with the help of $490 a month in food stamps, plus Social Security disability payments for three of the youngsters. The public aid will almost certainly be increased with the new additions to her family.
Also, the hospital where the octuplets are expected to spend seven to 12 weeks has requested reimbursement from Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid program, for care of the premature babies, according to the Los Angeles Times. The cost has not been disclosed.
Word of the public assistance has stoked the furor over Suleman's decision to have so many children by having embryos implanted in her womb.
"It appears that, in the case of the Suleman family, raising 14 children takes not simply a village but the combined resources of the county, state and federal governments," Los Angeles Times columnist Tim Rutten wrote in Wednesday's paper. He called Suleman's story "grotesque."
On the Internet, bloggers rained insults on Suleman, calling her an "idiot," criticizing her decision to have more children when she couldn't afford the ones she had, and suggesting she be sterilized.
"It's my opinion that a woman's right to reproduce should be limited to a number which the parents can pay for," Charles Murray wrote in a letter to the Los Angeles Daily News. "Why should my wife and I, as taxpayers, pay child support for 14 Suleman kids?"
She was also berated on talk radio, where listeners accused her of manipulating the system and being an irresponsible mother.
"From the outside you can tell that this woman was playing the system," host Bryan Suits said on the "Kennedy and Suits" show on KFI-AM. "You're damn right the state should step in and seize the kids and adopt them out."
A call to Suleman's publicist Mike Furtney was not immediately returned.
In her only media interviews, Suleman told NBC's "Today" she doesn't consider the public assistance she receives to be welfare and doesn't intend to remain on it for long.
Also, a Nadya Suleman Family Web Site has been set up to collect donations for the children. It features pictures of the mother and each octuplet and has instructions for making donations by check or credit card.
Suleman, whose six older children range in age from 2 to 7, said three of them receive disability payments. She said one is autistic, but she has not disclosed the other youngsters' disabilities, and refused to say how much they get in payments.
In California, a low-income family can receive Social Security payments of up to $793 a month for each disabled child. Three children would amount to $2,379.
The Suleman octuplets' medical costs have not been disclosed, but in 2006, the average cost for a premature baby's hospital stay in California was $164,273, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The average cost for just one cesarean birth in 2006 was $22,762 in California. Eight times that equals $1.3 million.
For a single mother, the cost of raising 14 children through age 17 ranges from $1.3 million to $2.7 million, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is struggling to close a $42 billion budget gap by cutting services, declined through a spokesman to comment on the taxpayer costs associated with the octuplets' delivery and care.
Suleman received disability payments for an on-the-job back injury during a riot at a state mental hospital, collecting more than $165,000 over nearly a decade before the benefits were discontinued last year.
Some of the disability money was spent on in vitro fertilizations, which was used for all 14 of her children, Suleman said. Suleman said she also worked double shifts at the mental hospital and saved up for the treatments. She estimated that all her treatments cost $100,000.
A dozen states, including California, have laws requiring insurance companies to cover infertility treatment, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. But California does not require insurers to cover in vitro procedures. It's not clear what type of coverage Suleman has.
In the NBC interview, Suleman said she will go back to California State University, Fullerton in the fall to complete her master's degree in counseling, and will use student loans to support her children. She said she will rely on the school's daycare center and volunteers.
I don't even know where to start with this. How fucking irresponsible can you be?
You have no business bringing into the world more kids than you can support. That includes paying for their care, feeding, clothing, medical, whatever. it's one thing to have kid/s already and fall on hard times, or to have an oops. But clearly, if she had a hundred thousand dollars for fertility treatments, she wasn't in such hard times and "oops" doesn't result in fourteen kids in seven years.
How in the hell do you expect to support these kids? You say you don't expect to be on welfare for very long (oh, and you don't consider it "welfare"). You say you plan to support your kids with student loans. Ha!
How in the hell do you expect to find the time to do your school work? A master's degree isn't exactly underwater basketweaving, genius.
How in the hell do you expect to support fourteen kids on student loans?
How in the hell do you expect to pay back such astronomical loans while supporting your kids?
How in the hell do you expect to support your kids on one income? Hell, even if there was a father? It would still take quite the dual income to properly support these kids.
Hope you're okay with being a single mother for like, ever. Because no man in his right mind is going to find out that you've got fourteen kids and immediately run because 1. Fourteen kids! 2. she's looking for a daddy and another income and 3. did I mention the fourteen kids?
How in the hell do you expect to give these kids the time and attention they need?
How in the hell do you expect to be able to go anywhere? I mean, you can't even just go to the grocery store for a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk. What if you have to take kid/s to the doctor? Are you going to buy a bus? Where would you get the money for that?
Volunteers? Give me a break. You shouldn't be expecting people to volunteer to take care of kids that you shouldn't have in the first place.
How in the hell do you expect to remain healthy enough to even attempt to do any of this?
Oh my god, my brain is racing with incomprehension at the stupidity. I can't even begin to properly express what I'm thinking here. This is the sort of person who has no business having one kid (I don't care if she had the finances to take care of one kid, there's clearly a massive irresponsible streak there.)
And don't get me started on the doctor who performed the treatments (apparently, the doctors who delivered the babies are now speaking out in favor of tougher regulations on assisted reproduction...holy fucking cow, someone needs to.) this is...ridiculous. Has this doctor no regard for the health and well-being of anything but his bank account? He should be the one footing the bill for these kids, seeing as there was probably no one holding a gun to his head and forcing him to do it.
Oh, and Arnold, your tax payers deserve full disclosure on how much they're paying for this. So make with the fucking numbers already.
*Okay, so clearly, I have words...but what I've written here doesn't even begin to properly express what I'm thinking.
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no subject
Date: 2009-02-12 03:43 am (UTC)Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is struggling to close a $42 billion budget gap by cutting services, declined through a spokesman to comment on the taxpayer costs associated with the octuplets' delivery and care.
Considering the state of California shut down about what was it, 2 weeks ago, because of the budget problems, this is the last shit California needs right now.
I hope Child Protective Services gets involved. Because if they don't, there's something seriously fucking wrong.
Oh, and if there were ever a case for forcible sterilization it's this.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-12 03:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-12 04:04 am (UTC)AND they should take the medical licsense away from the Dr. who implanted her.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-12 04:09 am (UTC)But...yeah, I'm inclined to agree here. Like I said, she's got no business having one kid, even if she had the finances to handle it, she clearly has a wildly irresponsible streak that goes well beyond anything that I could consider sane.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-12 05:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-12 05:46 am (UTC)She will be lucky if she doesn't end up in a mental hospital herself, I think. Oh, and she's already loony if she thinks anyone will loan her enough money for tuition AND caring for all her kids. Too high of a credit risk. Too easy for her to just go "Oh, I'm bankrupt. Oops! Guess I can't pay that back!"
no subject
Date: 2009-02-12 06:32 am (UTC)That's what I hope anyway. But with the public outcry from this, for once I think the government may have to do the right thing.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-12 10:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-12 11:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-12 02:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-12 03:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-12 03:21 pm (UTC)This story makes me sick. She needs to be in a mental hospital.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-12 07:11 pm (UTC)I have a special needs child I get NOTHING from anyone for him. Not even his biological father. His daddy (stepfather - but knows him only has daddy 0 cause thats who he is) provides him with everything he needs. (ok grandma gets him things - but ya know what I mean)
no subject
Date: 2009-02-13 12:02 am (UTC)On some level, this woman is providing a public service: enough of these kids will end up in adoption or foster care (sadly, after she's dropped the ball altogether) that folks who WANT and DESERVE more children might get a chance at them.
It's like she suffers from that "collector" compulsion, only it's kids.
Ka-reepy.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-13 12:09 am (UTC)