Taxpayers, hospice pay for Schiavo medical care

The Miami Herald ^ | PHIL LONG

[myself6]

Agreed that everyone should have some kind of access to medical facilities. Disagree that the money to pay for it should be forcefully take from people at the point of a gun and threat of jail. Charity and religious organizations are great for this type of thing.

Its just wrong to make a person a slave to another and that is exactly what you are doing when you take the fruits of a mans labor from him (against his will) and give it to another. Its even wrong to do when you believe its for a good cause.

I think its repugnant that you are using this case to shill for socialism.

[Hildy]

You don't think that any of it has gone to Terri's bills from the past 12 years?

[chiefqc]

When the money is gone, Michael's phoney friends, the judge and the laywer, will no longer remember his name.

[wisconsinconservative]

all the money from the settlement was spent already on her care. there is no money left.

Well, you got it half right. All the money ismostly gone. But it sure didn't go for any rehab or care. That all ended when Mikey deposited the check in 1992. Here is an accounting of the funds(including pre-payment of her cremation with Greer's blessing from funds that were intended for her rehab):

The following expenditures have been paid directly from Terri's Medical Trust fund, with the approval of Judge George Greer:
 

Summary of expenses paid from Terri’s 1.2 Million Dollar medical trust fund (jury awarded 1992)

NOTE:  In his November 1993 Petition Schiavo alleges the 1993 guardianship asset balance as $761,507.50

Atty Gwyneth Stanley Atty Deborah Bushnell Atty Steve Nilson Atty Pacarek Atty Richard Pearse (GAL) Atty George Felos	$10,668.05 $65,607.00 $7,404.95 $1,500.00 $4,511.95 $397,249.99
Other
1st Union/South Trust Bank	$55,459.85
Michael Schiavo	$10,929.95
Total  $545,852.34

After 11 years of interference with carrying out his wifes request her husband has been forced into a lifestyle that he wouldn't have gone to had he been allowed to carry out her wishes.

This is Michael's $400,000 house, complete with an oval pool in the back yard. He and his "fiancee" have his and her Mercedes. All this on a nurses salary??? What a tough lifestyle to be "forced" into, wouldn't you say??

[Hildy]

Well, that's just an impossible burden on our health system and on our budget. My point is life and death decisions are made for a variety of reasons. It's unreasonable to think that the US can keep everyone alive no matter the cost.

[oceanperch]

If Terri's funds would have been used properly and she lived at home where those who are disabled usually do live her financial independance would not be an issue.

Homecare is better and more economical then nursing homes.

I recently learned that in our State of Oregon most severly disabled careproviders in home recieve $1200.00 to $2000.00 dollars and healthcare needs are covered by the State.

[Hildy]

So Michael only received $10,000? So what's his motivation in this? And please don't give me the "he wants to murder her because she'll one day wake up and tell the world he tried to kill her." That doesn't fly because for the first five years he tried everything, in front of everybody, to make her better. What's his motivation? It's not money....

[oceanperch]

Yes you can do g tube feedings at home no problem also many home health care medical needs can be done at home and much better than in a facility with umpteen people just "doing a job".

Don't get me wrong there are those who care about the needs of their patients in these facilities but you also have drones that are clueless also.

I know personally the having someone come in twice a week for 9hrs for my respite is hard as they have to be constantly breifed on daily care needs.

My son had to temp. stay in a facility when I was by emergency hospitalized for a week and the care, even though I supplied all his medical supplies, sucked. Imagine no one changing his g tube stoma site pad for days at a time when normally I do it twice a day to keep the site healthy. Could lost the site meaning major surgery to put in a new one due to infection. The list goes on how half ass the care was, it is a small town and people reported back to me first hand.

I changed my diet and pay more attention to my health so that will never be an issue so help me God.

Terri could be at home or in a group home for the disabled that is sooo much better.

[True Republican Patriot]

Unbelievable! HINO got $2.25 million from the lawsuit! And this lawyer says it was only $700,000 and $500,000 went to her and that slime (felos). Where did the rest of Terri's funds go? Something really stinks bigtime! God Bless terri and her family and save them from this HINO and Partners in Torture and Death.How many others have been tortured and murdered there?

[booksaver]

This case highlights the very real fact that people through no fault of their own sometimes need Medicaid and it is wrong and immoral of us, who don't need Medicaid, to deny them healthcare. And it is equally wrong and immoral for us to choose to give assistance to Schiavo, because we care about her case, and deny thousands of others.

The fact is that Americans, the whole of humanity, have and will be taxed. The question is, What are we going to do with it? Helping the poor is to me a worthy exercise of that money.

[oceanperch]

There are group homes that are a great alternative.

They have only 4 or so disabled clients and it is not mixed with different types of those needing care.

Others with her same type of disabilities would be there.

[booksaver]

What's a burden on our present health care system and budget is the trillions of dollars in tax cuts this administration wants to continue at the expense of the lives of the poorest Americans. No one's asking the US to keep everyone alive. Those who can afford health care insurance should pay for it, I certainly do. But I refuse to see the poor, sick and dying around me and allow through passive inaction their deaths when I know this country, the richest in the world, can do something about it.

I believe in Medicaid reform, I truly believe there are ways to reform the system (like prevent fraud by states and make it possible to buy drugs competitively) to reduce the rising costs. But we must try, the alternative is unthinkable.

[booksaver]

I hope that she lives to take advantage of that alternative.

[Hildy]

So what's to stop everyone who has an illness to come here for the free health care?

[booksaver]

Again, you are in the extremes. I am not "shilling" for socialism. I have seen the abuses of that system in the world and see how it saps the creative energy and will to achieve out of the individual. I have seen how it increases poverty, not decrease it. I am simply advocating helping the helpless.

[johnb838]

No, the judge and the lawyer are ideological euthanazis.

[wisconsinconservative]

So Michael only received $10,000? So what's his motivation in this? And please don't give me the "he wants to murder her because she'll one day wake up and tell the world he tried to kill her." That doesn't fly because for the first five years he tried everything, in front of everybody, to make her better. What's his motivation? It's not money....

Where in my post did I say any of that?? I was addressing the subject of the article. Terri is unlawfully on Medicaid while her "husband" lives in a $400,000 home and owns 2 luxury cars. I can't find what I want right now to back it up but I believe the $10,000 listed there is reimbursement for the prepaid cremation.

[johnb838]

No one is arguing that EVERYONE should be alive. The argument is that this woman has been declared to be in a Persistent Vegetative State, and it simply is not true. THAT is why her parents want to keep her alive. No one knows how much therapy will help, they would simply like to see it tried. Instead of this constant drumbeat of kill her, kill her, kill her.

And yes, we believe that food and water for otherwise healthy but disabled individuals is NOT extraordinary heroic measures, but simply the respect one should have for a DOG much less a human being.

[johnb838]

My Mom lived in a group home the last few years of her life and she had a lot more fun than the few years preceding it.

[booksaver]

You are overgeneralizing again. Not everyone qualifies for Medicaid. It is health care for the neediest among us. That is all. There are millions of Americans (and immigrants) who are able to work and make a living but who do not have health care insurance for various reasons nor do they qualify for Medicaid and there is no help for them.