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Looks like the taxpayers of California are going to foot the bill after all.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - 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." "I would just ask people to consider her situation and she has been under a tremendous amount of pressure that no one could be prepared for," Furtney said.
Furtney said he, Suleman and her family had received death threats and had been getting messages that were "disgusting things that would never be proper to put in any story." 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 told NBC one is autistic, another has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, known as ADHD, and a third experienced a mild speech delay with "tiny characteristics of autism." She 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. 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.
State Sen. Sam Aanestad, R-Grass Valley, an oral surgeon who sits on the Health Committee, said that once a state Medical Board investigation is complete, lawmakers could review issues from government oversight to standards in fertility treatment. 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. She 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.
Fourteen states, including California, require insurance companies to offer or provide coverage for infertility treatment, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. But California has a law specifically excluding in vitro coverage. 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 already owes $50,000 in student loans, she told NBC. She said she will rely on the school's daycare center and volunteers.
Probably we are different. I wouldn't imagine fretting about having a second cat. We have 4 cats and I am not babying them. They are animals and suposed to get their running around by themselves. They do a job here hunting garden mice.
I also am getting into broiler chickens. Do you realize what it means? It means killing them and plucking them. Yes, no double talk about it.
Heartache is when I get besieged by my kids to buy them a dog, and I know that that dog will die in 12-14 years and they will have to witness that.
Having many kids is not having time to over-worry about each one, yes. Just like in all those olden times that people bring up here with such nostalgy from time to time. But that's healthy in my book.
Well, in my book if you treat an animal 'something' like a child their intelligence develops and they really try to act like a child. If you treat your children like animals they grow up wild and make bad decisions.
Times have changed. When I was a kid there were no drug or gang problems in schools. Kids were polite and treated others with respect. You did not walk down the street and hear boom boxes or loud music from cars or hear them yelling to each other in a residential neighborhood. 'Please' and 'Thank you' were just assumed courtesys that we extended to each other. Kids did not cuss.
I think children take a LOT more care these days. Most moms I know do not allow their children to wander about on the block, playing. They set up play dates.
If boy scout leaders and priests have been caught as pedophiles, I think we, the public, are much more savvy now than we used to be.
My cat is a breed that is known to be 'clingy' and sensitive. It is also among the most intelligent of cats and stays active and 'kittenish' through old age. I have had other cats, but this is the first purebred and my husband and I are convinced that we made the right selection. He gives back much more than he takes.
I think it takes a close relationship with a kid to talk to him/her about sex AND to ensure they feel free enough with you to come to you with such struggles (which we are sure they must have as teens) rather than learn about such things from friends.
If children (and pets) feel special and loved they want to please you. It is better to motivate both(and spouses, come to think of it) with love rather than laying down the law and threats. Any good manager knows that you must earn respect, but once people respect you they will work that much harder. Being stern just makes them want to run away - though seeing all the adult kids still living with their folks sometimes makes me think a bit of 'sternness' might come in handy at times.
My cat is a city cat - in an apartment and never goes out, which is what the vets and breeders are telling us to do these days. To have such a pet and be responsible we must provide exercise for him and are considering another cat for both exercise and companionship should we start taking our well earned vacations.
as much as this woman erks me I am going to watch what she has to say on those shows for the simple fact i want to know what her answers are and where she went to get such a procedure done. if she wants to hoard then find something else because unless she is forced by the state to get her tubes tied she is going to continue to have babies because she will never be happy. the whole the world owes me something attitude is making me dislike her even more. I am not saying that I am better than anyone but give me a break.
The way I see it is that the media is having a field day saying it is the doctor's fault. I am not sure that doctors should be making moral decisions for the rest of us. I think, in some cases, they might be open for lawsuits.
I think everyone is avoiding the real situation. Doctors will not break the law and so long as they would not be legally culpable they would deny her. I think the real issue is that she's a nut and lives will be twisted because of it. If anyone is to step in, it's big brother.
I would not hang this on the doctor unless he/she can find this woman mentally deranged in some way.
This is a matter of the community protecting the children by limiting their number to something that is manageable.
That is HARD. We all have a different idea of how many is too much, but let's not circumvent our responsibility as a community and try to force the DOCTOR to make these decisions.
There must be a legal line drawn, something to give a guideline to all concerned.
Nobody wants to tackle the HOT issue, so MOST are laying the responsibility at the feet of the doctor.
So quick one is to judge another. To each their own. Whether it is liked or not, those babies are here and deserve a chance at life just the same as any other baby born in the United States. Ya know, if people were as quick at lending a hand as they are to judge someone, maybe this place would be a little better. Instead of putting the woman down, help out by giving blankets, bottles, diapers, or whatever. She might just surprise everyone. I for one would love to have more children, I just choose not to. She isn't the first woman to have a multiple birth situation and it's guarenteed she won't be the last. She gets a TV show, oh well. She can rank up like Jon & Kate plus 8. She writes a book, she can go into detail about all the children. No one really knows how she felt about her childhood of being an only child, in which that could have made her want alot of children, so they aren't alone either. As for the grandmother stating they have to feed the 6 children in shifts, what the heck is that? Those children aren't little tiny babies that have to be held to feed. She should be like other grandmothers and welcome grandchildren, whether it's 6 or 14. Big Deal. There are too many children abandoned and unloved in the United States, for a grandmother to complain about grandchildren. That to me is more sad than the 8 babies being born.
If they did what you suggest, she would just keep having more and .... more and ...... more and ....... - you get it.
Society should not reward bad behavior and helping a mental case is just playing into the fantasy. In reality, we have the kids we can afford, in time and emotions and money.
It's just a matter of time before they take her children away from her. There is no way she can provide for the 14 children without a job and living in a three bedroom house where she did not even pay rent. Now she even has a website to collect donations. The nerve!
Welcome to The Nadya Suleman Family Website (http://www.thenadyasulemanfamily.com/ - broken link)
It's just a matter of time before they take her children away from her. There is no way she can provide for the 14 children without a job and living in a three bedroom house where she did not even pay rent. Now she even has a website to collect donations. The nerve!
Welcome to The Nadya Suleman Family Website (http://www.thenadyasulemanfamily.com/ - broken link)
Perhaps she went public to elicit sympathy. Maybe she saw how the public reacted to past multiple births and expected the same outpouring of love/sympathy. When she could not get attention for the six, she tried with eight more. I did hear that the doctor suggested that she did not go through with the eight because there is a likelihood of some having congenital defects, but she refused and said she wanted them all. If he had removed some at the time, could she not have sued him?
Maybe she went to the media because she was just sitting at home and nobody approached her with book deals.
Perhaps she is asking for donations because her lawyers told her the kids could be taken from her.
Ok, well, I was watching the View and the comment was made that she is getting NO offers by corporations of pampers and baby food, etc. She is a hot potato and the public does not like her at all and no company wants to be associated with her.
....Ok, well, I was watching the View and the comment was made that she is getting NO offers by corporations of pampers and baby food, etc. She is a hot potato and the public does not like her at all and no company wants to be associated with her.
This is not fair to the babies, I do not want to reward the mother for her choices, but robbing the children of resources because of public opinion is just wrong.
No one will be taking these babies away from her because she has been labeled a "nut case" by the public. Parental rights are not so easily lost in the USA, unless the state of CA determines the kids are being neglected or abused they will not be taken from her. Lack of income does not equal neglect either.
What's with asking for donations? I don't understand why anyone would give money or things to someone who is irresponsible. I have one child...this woman HAD 6...then 8 more...and she wants us to 'feel sorry for her?'
Maybe instead of looking for a job I should build a 'poor me' website!!!
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