Octuplets Mom Receives Public Assistance; Questions of Fraud Are Raised

Nadya Suleman, the 33 year old bankrupt mother who recently gave birth to octuplets is receiving public assistance. Although she stated that she does not receive welfare in a NBC interview, she is receiving disability and food stamps. Suleman has 6 other children. The birth of the octuplets brings her child count to 14.

The octuplet's mom receives public assistance; filed bankruptcy a little over a year ago; and until recently she lived with her parents. Nadya Suleman has gone into hiding due to alleged death threats against her.

Welfare fraud and defrauding the public. That is what this whole situation reeks of. The octuplets mom receives public assistance, although she told NBC that she did not consider her food stamps and disability benefits to be welfare. What assistance is she be receiving and why the decision to have more embryos implanted? Looking at Nadya Suleman's situation and the facts surrounding the birth of the octuplets raises a few red flags.

Disability Payments

Disability payments have been or are being paid to Nadya Suleman and 3 of her older children. Nadya Suleman had been receiving disability payments for a back injury she suffered while on the job at a mental hospital. Over the past 10 years that amount added up to $165,000. Broken down that is $16, 500 per year or $1,375 per month. These disability benefits ended last year. Her 6 older children would also have received benefits under this situation as they depend on Suleman for their sole support. It is coincidental that with her disability benefits about to run out, she decides to have 8 embryos implanted. Nadya was unemployed and living with her parents when she gave birth to the octuplets. Reports say she never told her parents about the disability payments.

The octuplet's mom claims to have paid for the $100,000 infertility treatments with the disability money she received plus the money she made while working a double shift at the mental hospital. If you are disabled, how can you work a double shift? Do the math, the numbers do not add up. There must have been additional money or benefits coming in from somewhere; Medi-Cal or did declaring bankruptcy help?

Disability payments are currently being made to Nadya Suleman for three of her 6 children. One child is autistic, another has a mild speech delay (they claim possible signs of autism), and third is ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). California allows disability payments of up to $793 per child for low income families. Add this up and the total is $2,379 per month. Autism and ADHD are two of the easiest diagnosis to receive. Nadya's educational and work history make it easy for her to manipulate symptoms to receive a diagnosis of autism or ADHD for her children. There is no confirmation from the State of California as to the exact amount of disability Nadya receives for her children.

Food Stamps

The octuplet's mom receives an additional $490 a month for food stamps. That brings her potential monthly benefits payout (food stamps and disability) to $2,885 a month. These amounts were prior to the birth of the octuplets. The addition of eight more children could double the food stamps benefit.

Medicaid

The birth of the octuplets is going to cost the taxpayers of California a significant amount of money. Kaiser Permanente, the hospital where the octuplets were born, has requested reimbursement from Medi-Cal, California's Medicaid program. The cost of such a complicated birth and premature infant care could cost the state of California a bundle. US Department of Social Services estimated that in 2006 the medical cost of a premature birth was $164,273. Eight times that number is $1,314,184.00! Other estimates claim the cost could be in the hundreds of thousands. Kaiser Permanente has not released the exact cost of the octuplet's birth and hospital care.

Apparently Nadya Suleman does not have medical insurance. If she did, private insurance would have covered in whole or in part the birth and hospital care for the octuplets. There is no indication that private insurance paid any part of Nadya Suleman's fertility treatment or hospital bills.

What about the treatment for infertility? California law explicitly states that invitro fertilization (IVF) is not covered under Medi-Cal. How was Nadya Suleman able to pay for her embryo implantations? No information has been released as to how the embryos were implanted. However, Suleman's physician, Dr. Michael Kamrava and the West Coast IVF Clinic in Beverly Hills, CA are under investigation.

The Fraud Continues

Other people's money. That is what Nadya Suleman lives on. She declared bankruptcy a year and a half ago. She lived with her parents until she went onto hiding (is the fraud becoming apparent or are their bona fide death threats). Suleman's mother states her daughter has no viable means to support herself or her 14 children. In addition, Nadya has not given her parents any monetary contributions toward food, rent or utilities while she lived there. Nadya's mother only recently learned of the disability payments her daughter was receiving.

Prior to the birth of her octuplets, it is estimated that public assistance was paying her close to $3,000.00 a month. Suleman has $50,000.00 in outstanding student loans which cannot be discharged in bankruptcy. Nadya Suleman plans to attend school in the fall to obtain her master's degree. This will result in more loans and grants offered to her.

Nadya Suleman has hired the public relations firm of Kileen Furtney Inc. to manage her publicity. Not bad for a bankrupt mother of 14 who receives public assistance and lives off of her parents. Where did she get the money to pay for a PR firm? The answer: A website featuring the octuplets is asking for donations. All donations are to be send to the public relations firm. Is this how she plans to make money when the State of California cuts her off? Will Nadya live off of the kindness of strangers?

Nadya and her 14 children will be milking the State of California of money for many years to come. With 14 children and no job she qualifies for every program available. Expect her disability payments to increase once the octuplets are home and are diagnosed with medical problems. Food stamps and other assistance will increase as well and who knows how much money her website will bring in.

The latest reports say that due to death threats, Nadya is in hiding. That is so perfect! No sooner does fraud start to become the main headline, Nadya fears for her life and goes into hiding. What is it that really scares her - alleged death threats or the thought of facing fraud charges and potential jail time?

Nadya Suleman's Defense

Nadya Suleman claims that she paid for the fertility treatments from disability payments she received while being injured at work. The dollar amount of the disability payment is discussed above. Ms. Suleman claims to have worked double shifts at the mental hospital to pay for the infertility treatments which cost $100,000.

The octuplet's mom states that the public assistance she receives is just temporary. Plans to return to school for a master's degree are in the works.

She is asking for sympathy and understanding as this whole situation has put more stress on her and her family than she ever anticipated.

Who is the real victim here; a woman who has 8 more children when she could not support herself or the six children she already had, or the taxpayers of California and the public at large who are being asked to foot the bill for all of this.

Sources:

Threats Send California Mom into Hiding

Taxpayers May Have to Recover Octuplet's Mom's Costs

Octuplets Conceived Through IVF; Mom Recently Declared Bankruptcy; Possible Sperm Donor

Kileen Furtney Group, Inc.

Reproductive Society Probes Octuplet's Mother, Doctor

Supports Can Donate to Octuplets Website, California Could Foot Hospital Bill