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well if they are smart they can assist Gritz.

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Who's paying for Terri Schiavo's care?"

Posted on Thu, Mar. 17, 2005

TERRI SCHIAVO EXPENSES

Taxpayers, hospice pay for Schiavo medical care

Medicaid has been paying for Terri Schiavo's medications, and a hospice has provided free care.

BY PHIL LONG
plong@herald.com

Taxpayers -- and a St. Petersburg area hospice, which provides daily care for free.

Money that Schiavo's husband, Michael, received as part of a medical malpractice lawsuit in his wife's case in 1993 is almost gone, said Deborah Bushnell, one of Michael Schiavo's lawyers.

Of the $700,000 payment, only about $50,000 is left, Bushnell said. The rest went to pay for medical care for Schiavo, who has been in a persistent vegetative state for 15 years, and for legal fees in the battle over her fate, she said.

Medicaid, the state and federal program that pays medical costs for the poor and indigent, has been picking up the tab for Schiavo's medications for two years, Bushnell said, while the hospice provides care for free.

HOSPICE

Louise Cleary, spokeswoman for Woodside Hospice, the 72-bed center where Terri Schiavo has been in Pinellas Park, said she could not discuss Schiavo's case, but the average cost of care is about $80,000 a year.

''We are a not-for-profit hospice,'' Cleary said. Although most patients have private insurance or state or federal coverage for the medically indigent, some don't have coverage. ''We never turn a patient away who needs us. Never,'' Cleary said.

LEGAL COSTS

With the money in the fund nearly exhausted, Bushnell said neither she nor attorney George Felos have been paid in more than two years. Throughout the case, she said, she has been paid a total of $80,309 and Felos $358,434. A judge approves all legal costs, she said, adding that Michael Schiavo does not have control over the guardianship fund.

At the hospice, the bulk of Schiavo's expenses are in her daily care provided by the center. She does not require much medicine, Bushnell said. Schiavo is given occasional pain medication, Bushnell said.

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WHY WOULD TERRI SCHIAVO BE GIVEN OCCASIONAL PAIN MEDICATION IF SHE'S "PVS????!!!"

TERRI COULDN'T FEEL PAIN UNLESS SHE WAS CONSCIOUS AND COGNITIVE AND NOT PVS!!!!!!!!!!!