Is the Hospital and Physicians providing Ms. Schiavo’s care free?

[The Whiskey Priest]

Who is paying for it? Will the government pick up the cost? Will the family pick up the cost? Will all those who want to keep her on life support pick up the cost? Just wondering, since no one seems to be interested in pick up the cost for babies that are going to bed tonight in pain, because they cannot afford medical care.

How much of societies wealth should go towards extraordinary care for one person? What if the cost of one person crowds out the ability of one million to receive minimal care? At any one time there is only so much wealth and resources for health care. How do we decide who gets the care and who doesn’t get the care?

These are the important questions. I think there is a passage in the bible that goes something like “there is a time to sow and a time to reap…” To me the meaning is there is a natural way, we are born, we live and then it is time to die. Sometimes we don’t get to live a complete life….but life is must be robust….I sat by my mother’s side as she slipped away due to cancer….there is a time when life must end, that experience taught me that, the medical community is not God….they may be able to keep our poor bodies functioning, but they cannot give us the robustness that entails life.

That said, there is one more question….where did we get the right to debate another family’s troubles, another person’s fate….I for one feel a little shame for taking part in such a spectacle.

[China_cat]

1. Randall Terry and Operation Rescue

are picking up most of the bills.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[crimson333]

3. most of it is probably covered by Medicare

[BrklynLiberal]

8. Medicaid..which is mostly State.

[crimson333]

10. it is my understanding she is on ssdi

which gives her Medicare, and they are paying hospice under part A


But I am not sure because I hae not followed it closely

[ultraist]

12. Are you sure? I think Medicaid is largely federally funded.

Apparently, Federal funding amounts vary state to state as they are based on a per income capita formula (FMAP).

http://www.cms.hhs.gov/publications/overview-medicare-medicaid/default4.asp
The Federal Government pays a share of the medical assistance expenditures under each State's Medicaid program. That share, known as the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP), is determined annually by a formula that compares the State's average per capita income level with the national income average. States with a higher per capita income level are reimbursed a smaller share of their costs. By law, the FMAP cannot be lower than 50 percent or higher than 83 percent. In fiscal year (FY) 2004, the FMAPs varied from 50 percent in twelve States to 77.08 percent in Mississippi, and averaged 60.2 percent overall.

[POAS]

4. The money from the lawsuit ran out sometime ago and she has been declared

indigent and her care is being paid for by the state.

[molly]

5. Isn't there 50,000 left?

[whistle]

6. The state will hold her husband liable after Terri's death....

[seventythree]

7. I can't tell you for sure

but "indigent care" is medicaid, not medicare -- that's for the elderly -- and medicaid is 50/50 state and federal -- so to answer your question to the best of my knowledge -- we all are.

[crimson333]

9. if she is getting ssdi

she qualifies for medicare part A,which covers hospice

but basically your right we all are if paying taxes

[seventythree]

11. thanks for the info

My thinking is that at such a young age, she probably didn't have enough quarters in to qualify for the disability (not sure how many you need, however), so is most likley on SSI. Do you know how many quarters one would need to qualify for disability?

[ultraist]

13. Young people can get SSI

If they are disabled. One of the families I worked with had a son with a chronic kidney condition and he recieved SSI disablity checks in addition to having his dialysis paid for by Medicaid.

The following websites provide Screening Tools to help you see if you may be eligible for a variety of governmental programs: www.govbenefits.gov and http://www.benefitscheckup.org/

Terri likely qualified for Medicaid under this criteria. She also may be recieving SSI.

http://www.cms.hhs.gov/medicaid/whoiseligible.asp

Person who is Aged, Blind, and/or Disabled
Apply if you are aged (65 years old or older), blind, or disabled and have low income and few resources. Apply if you are terminally ill and want to receive hospice services. Apply if you are aged, blind, or disabled; live in a nursing home; and have low income and limited resources. Apply if you are aged, blind, or disabled and need nursing home care, but can stay at home with special community care services. Apply if you are eligible for Medicare and have low income and limited resources

****

Normally, her husband's income would be means tested but they got around this by declaring her as an indigent. Yet, he maintains his rights as next of kin. I still don't understand how he can be her legal guardian and not have his income and assets calculated in her medicaid application. State laws vary though on guardianship and FL has different guardianship laws than we do, primarily due to the large elderly population.

[seventythree]

14. Yes, that is how I see it, too.

She is probably an SSI recipient -- and as such, she gets Medicaid, and her family's income is not means tested. At least I don't believe it is, because of the SSI designation. My nephew is developmentally disabled and gets SSI, but the family is low income so would pass a means test, anyway.

[bluedog]

15. WE the People are Paying for HER

dependent on the institution's charity and Florida taxpayers for her care.

The $1-million received by her and her husband, Michael, in a medical malpractice case in 1993 is nearly gone, attorneys say, spent on her care and the husband's legal quest over the past seven years to stop her artificial feedings so she can die.

snip

Just $40,000 to $50,000 remains of the money won in the malpractice case

Terri lives at the Woodside Hospice - part of a not-for-profit hospice network in Florida - among terminally ill patients. She is permitted to stay there for free because she is considered indigent, Bushnell said. Patients who can afford it pay roughly $80,000 a year to stay at the hospice.
..........have been paid for the past couple of years by the state's Medicaid program for needy people.



http://www.sptimes.com/2005/03/17/Tampabay/Money_is_just_about_e.shtml