VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, [2], 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 12:04:04 05/24/05 Tue
Author: Kelly
Subject: Special or asking too much?

Have you heard of the Gosselin's? This is a family with twins and sextuplets. I can't imagine what life is like. They have had an outpouring of support from the community and volunteers wanting to help. However, the family turned away volunteers saying they wanted to raise their kids on their own. But now they are fighting Medicare trying to keep and expensive skilled nurse to help care for their kids even though none have any health issues and want Medicare to pay for it all. The only 'medication' the nurse dispenses is a multivitamin. Other than that the nurse spends her 30 hours a week with the family feeding, bathing, changing diapers and playing with the sextuplets. Sounds like a job any child care worker could do to me not an expensive nurse. The mother is also a trained nurse but insists she needs a 2nd set of medical eyes there to watch for diaper rashes and fevers because her husband has to commute to his job and is gone 12 hours a day. Medicare provided the nursing care for the first year because the sextuplets were 8 week premature but now that none of the kids have any health issues (by the mother’s admission) will no longer pay for the nurse. The parents say they can't afford the $25,000 to keep the nurse and the kids have bonded with her and don't want to change. Even though there is no medical reason to keep her they think Medicare should see them as a special circumstance and allow them to keep her for this reason.

I don't dispute this family needs someone there to help with the kids. I couldn't imagine caring for 8 kids alone. But should Medicare have to pay for a skilled nurse to help care for 8 healthy kids? Couldn't a mother’s helper or nanny do the same things?

here are some articles on the issues of the nurse:
http://www.readingeagle.com/berksblogs/archivedstories/gosselins519.asp

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/opinion/columnists/s_334106.html

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/states/pennsylvania/counties/philadelphia_county/philadelphia/11663428.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

http://kyw.com/Local%20News/local_story_128202940.html

And comments from locals on a message site:
http://www.readingeagle.com/blog/mother/archives/2005/05/here_we_go_agai.html#comments

The Family website:
http://www.sixgosselins.com/

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]
[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.