Taxpayers may be covering octuplet mom’s bills?

Hospital where 33-year-old gave birth asking state to reimburse its costs

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.

Harsh criticism toward the mother

“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?”

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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 dayc

so let me get this right...

...you have a problem paying $.1 for this instance to be troubling?? LOLOL.

If you really thought about the situation, you should be more infuriated that the so-called "doctor" that did this unethical procedure is still free.

It amazes me to no end that people are agitated over this...but remain silent on the total waste of multi-billions of american dollars that is indeed the Iraqi war

Of course it isn't right, but what is the alternative? Letting the babies die?

California just can't seem to help itself from being.. well, California...

I think we should pay to remove her uterus. That woman is not right in the head.

WAY MUST WE DO THIS..ITS A DOLLAR. WHO KNOWS, I COULD OF USED THAT DOLLAR ON A LOTTERY TICKET AND MADE MILLIONS..LOL

she should of had an abortion.....right?

It is obvious that this woman is mentally ill. I think her children have been failed all the way around. Failed by the grandparents who enabled the mother, the doctors who didn't screen the mother correctly, and by state agencies that don't investigate why this woman has 3 children with disabilities. I suspect there is fraud involved here too with her fertility doctor and with the doctors who are diagnosing the children... At the very least this woman needs a social worker assigned. No it is not right for taxpayers to pay for this, but I think we have a responsibility to help the children born into this mess through no fault of their own.

get off this womans back. who cares. at least she is trying to be a good mom, and go to school and make something of herself. you should have the real problem with the drug addicts or lazy people who just choose not to work so they collect welfare. honestly. why does this even have to be a big deal. let her have as many children as she wants and you have as many as you want. there are families with 1 or 2 children who collect welfare, food stamps, and disibility etc. i mean don't judge. besides she was getting disablility because she has children WITH DISABLILITES. i mean come on.

Of course it isn't right that tax payers be on the hook to pay for the care for these kids. At some point, child endangerment charges should be considered. Putting 14 kids in a 3 bedroom with three adults (mom, grandma & grandpa) isn't healthy and isn't a positive environment for growth.

It's not the kids fault that mom doesn't have a strong grasp of reality but really, if mom is incapable of caring for them economically, mentally and physically, child protective services should take them out of the home. This woman will be watched like no one else because of her disconnect with reality.

The doctor who implanted the eggs should have his license suspended and I'm sure something will be done about him/her. Ethics and morality is out the window on this case.

It is not the fault of the babies that they were born. Tax payers dollars pay for the miss-education of children all the time. Tax payers pay for the food,clothing, housing, up keep and monitoring of thousand of offenders everyday.

The babies are innocent victims of irresponsible action by a doctor who may not have expected all eight fetuses to live, however a higher power gave way for the babies to be born. Perhaps the doctor's mal practice insurance should pay.