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How Much Are Those Octuplets Going to Cost You? Yes, You.
Octo Mom talked to ABC7 in 2006 about getting IVF treatment in Beverly Hills
Octo Mom talked to ABC7 in 2006 about getting IVF treatment in Beverly Hills
Nadya Suleman, better known these days as "Octo Mom" has $50k in student loan debt, is unemployed, and now has 14 kids under the age of 8. One question that keeps coming up in the public and the press is how this 33-year-old single mom from Whittier plans on paying for her newborn octuplets and their six older siblings when she's got no income of her own and has driven her own parents into bankruptcy. Suleman is already receiving money from the government, explains the LA Times:
Even before she gave birth to the octuplets Jan. 26, Suleman was receiving $490 in monthly food stamps, and three of her children were receiving federal supplemental security income because they are disabled.
The Times crunches some numbers, and determines that if her "disabled children received the maximum payment, she would get nearly $2,900 a month in state and federal assistance, including the food stamps." On top of that, her octuplets probably qualify for Medi-Cal, and the most recent available figures "show that Southern California hospitals received an average of $1,198 per day, per patient." Of course, delicate newborns needing special care cost more:
The babies, who are 16 days old, have already racked up a conservative $153,344 in Medi-Cal costs, not including their delivery. Kaiser [Permanente Medical Center in Bellflower] doctors have said they will remain hospitalized for seven to 12 weeks. If they stay for seven weeks, the cost would be $469,616. If they stay 12 weeks, the cost would be $805,056.
But that's not the only help Suleman is getting from our fiscally troubled state.
An on-the-job injury almost 10 years ago kept her from going back to work. "Between 2000 and 2008, she received $169,353 in temporary disability payments, a workers' compensation spokeswoman said." Lucky for Suleman, her file "indicates that a doctor hired by the state to evaluate her believes she is now eligible for permanent disability." For anyone wondering how Suleman ponied up the cash to seek fertility treatment (and undergo 6 pregnancies) from Dr. Michael Kamrava's Beverly Hills West Coast IVF Clinic, this may well be the answer.
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Although Suleman is a Cal State Fullerton grad student, she may have missed a few Gov't/Econ classes. She told The Today Show's Ann Curry: "I'm not living off any taxpayer money. If I am, if it's food stamps, it's a temporary resource. And I was so reluctant. I very much so look forward to the day when I am not getting any kind of help with food stamps, which I believe will end when I graduate in about a year or year and a half."
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You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
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