Posted on 09/25/2009 9:47:24 AM PDT by Hawk720
On June 5, 2008, the Starr family's life changed forever.
Patrick Starr, father of two and a softball fanatic, was playing his favorite sport when he collided with another player and fell backward, striking his head on the field.
The impact caused brain damage that put the Pasadena man into a coma, in which he has remained ever since.
Now his wife of 16 years, Beth, is prepared to let him go - but she wanted to be sure she and their children Ashleigh, 15, and Zachary, 8, are financially secure first.
"That's what he would want," she said.
Starr said that in order to get there, she has had to struggle with a complicated mess of red tape on two separate, unrelated issues. She has fought simultaneous battles to get Medicaid to cover the costs of her husband's hospitalization, and to work with her bank to approve refinancing the family's waterfront home.
"The process to qualify for Medicaid is as grueling as the accident itself," said Starr, 41. "It shouldn't be that way. Due to the catastrophic nature of the accident, he should have been qualified right away."
(Excerpt) Read more at hometownannapolis.com ...
Fact is, Pasadena and Arnold are working class neighborhoods and NOT Annapolis and the property values aren’t Annapolis.
I asked earlier- how would someone making $122,000.00 (or not if, as you say, he wasn’t working) afford over a million $ home?
P.S. the “mud hole” was in reference to the end of the Magothy River.
I was referring to the devastating costs that accompany such a catastrophic injury and what happens to the family home and other assets.
How to care for minor children in the face of mounting bills and unending heartache.
The irony is that this illustrates one of the biggest lies about government health care. Medicare / Medicade requires you to burn through all of your own assets before they will pay for long term / nursing home type care. And I thought govt. health care was supposed to prevent an illness or injury from bankrupting you.
With this guys job and such, why didn’t he have catastrophic care insurance? As crappy as my job is, that is in the package
ditto
“If machines are keeping you alive...and you would have died without them...it is not murder to turn them off”
Pulling a feeding tube isn’t the same as turning off a machine. It is killing a person through dehydration. Shut off his respirator and he probably still breathes for years. Cut off hydration and he goes quick, it’s the Terry Schiavo argument. Wouldn’t want to be in this familys’ situation, but I shouldn’t be paying for it either
I pray that no one would have to suffer like this.
But this woman, as someone else said, has an entitlement mentality. She doesn’t expect her lifestyle to change because she expects the government to pay for the care of her husband, and then she is going to kill him regardless!
I would fully expect to pretty much lose everything if my husband was in this condition or dead, IF we didn’t have life insurance. Thankfully, we do. She should have had some, also.
What's the difference between that (G-Tube) and a fork/spoon??? It's definitely NOT life support, unless you consider a fork, life support as well.
The guy is in a 15 mo+ coma and not responsive. The doctors told her that if, after a year, he was still the same...he would remain that way. You can't feed a COMA patient with a fork and spoon. Short of a miracle (which could happen with anyone...)...he will remain in a coma for decades to come unless an infection gets him.
So...in the case of a coma patient...there is a BIG difference b/w a fork and a g-tube.
So, since they didn’t have the foresight to get life insurance, we have to pay for their continued prosperity?
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
So what’s the answer? Will she get Medicaid and still live large? Will she be ruined financially? what?
“So what’s the answer? Will she get Medicaid and still live large? Will she be ruined financially? what?”
I don’t how she will ‘live large’. Even if she can get herself out from under the medical bills (by handing them to the taxpayer), she still can’t be earning enough at a part-time job to support two children and the lifestyle they had, whether that was ‘living large’ or not. There was no life insurance, so she’ll have to get a full time job and probably have to sell her husband’s ‘toys’ and their home.
I just can’t believe how ill-prepared some people can be. No life insurance when you have a family is just ultimate stupidity.
My late husband was very ill (bipolar) and when he died last year he’d let the life insurance lapse. (gee, THANKS) I have enough for us to get by on, with a job.
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