is this a form of medicaid abuse?

Nurses Activism

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Specializes in LTC.

I have an aide I work with who is just one yr older than me...27...she has 6 kids! 4 of them are in diapers still....4 of them have the same dad who was killed (was on drugs etc according to her)...the other 2 have different dads and are 1 yr old and 4 mos old. ...anyways...She works prn and makes less than 10/ hr. She gets all kinds of assistance...her rent is paid, she gets right at 1000.00/mo in food stamps (which by the way SHE SELLS), her electric bills are paid and she doesnt have to buy diapers, formula, or pay for her kids insurance as every one of them get medicaid....including herself somehow. With this 6th baby..all of us at work stayed on her about the need to get her tubes tied. She did...now she says that when she 'COLLECTS MONEY" from someones insurance that hit her car a few mos back that she is going to get them un tied. Now....to add to this....we pay for her kids plus thousands more ....which im sure need the help....but...she also told me that during all of her pregnancies she drank and did some drugs. She made the comment about getting her tubes untied the other night at work and said "well..I didnt even have to pay to get them tied"...and I d had it! I said to her...'yea...we know you didnt pay for it...all of us that work in this county paid for it...just like we pay for all these babies and the food stamps that get sold"....I asked her what she would do if the state decided to say ok....medicaid is not going to pay for your medical bills any longer..we will just pay 80 percent and you will be responsible for the remaining 20...and for each md visit you will have a 30.00 copay and for each ER visit you will be required to pay a 100.00 copay along with what we wont cover. And you will have to pay a yearly deductible x amt for each child that recieves medicaid.......??...she couldnt answer me. The most likely answer is that she wouldnt pay the bills. ...I also asked her how she'd feed her kids if the state had to cut funds for food stamps? I mean ...you must not be in dire need of that much if you're selling them right? I think this is a huge abuse of the states assistance to lower income people and its how alot of laid off workers families get denied benefits around my area. It just burns me up when I hear her talk about all the help she gets and there are so many other people who have no kids or just 1 or 2 that cant get by in these economic times. Did I mention she drives a new escalade? its to full capacity as far as passengers and car seats go......shes even said before that when she takes one kid to the er or md ...she makes sure all of them get seen....and she frequents the er...its become nearly weekly at the taxpayers expense. Im just not understanding how any state can allow this nonsense to go on. I dont know a whole lot about politics and all this healthcare reform business...but am I wrong to think that this is abuse of our system ?

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Specializes in ED, ICU, PSYCH, PP, CEN.

I believe it is illegal for her to sell her food stamps. I am sure you could google some "food stamp" info.

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Turn her in ASAP!!!

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN

Spokane, Washington

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Selling benefits is illegal, they do bad bad things to you if they find out. Having as many kids as possible to live off the system is legal, but in poor taste.

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

Selling the food stamps is illegal and she can lose her benefits, get fined and even go to jail.

Things like that frustrate me so much. I applied to assistance in my state for myself and my kids while I am in nursing school and I was told that I did not work enough to qualify for food stamps!?!?!?

Because I am in school full time I would need to work 20 hours a week to get food stamps, but if I wasnt in school and working less than 20 hours and persuing unemployment benifts then I would qualify for food stamps and if I had children under the age of 6 we would qualify. I have 2 boys who are 8 & 10, if they were younger we would get food stamps. Makes a lot of sense dosnt it?

I work in an ER and I see the abuse all the time, where mom brings in 1 kid but hey senice we are here do you think that they can look at the other 3? They are all on state paid health care, kids are dirty eating cheetos running around the waiting room, mom expects the staff to babysit while she with her fresh manicure goes out to smoke and chat on her new Iphone.

They can reform healthcare all they want, but there will always be people who expect the system to pay for them that it is someone elses responsiblity to pay for them and their children. And even with changes somehow someway there are going to be people who will find someway to work the system

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Specializes in oncology, med/surg (all kinds).

please don't come on this site and tell me these stories. i can't handle it. my head is going to explode. are you trying to kill me????????? i see things like this all the time, but from The Other Side Of The Fence, so even though i see this abuse and manipulation, i don't really get the joy of hearing them BRAG about it. this mamma is PROUD of what she is doing. Nothing will make her stop on her own. why did you have to bring this up????????????? i can't stand it i can't stand it i can't stand it!!!!!!!

sarcasm doesn't always seem to translate well in writing. hope you know i am not really "scolding" you! i just hate hearing about this crap--actually, i really just hate that it happens. argh.

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Me and my children are recieving much needed benefits right now, as I am starting school and my husband is disabled with benefits pending. Luckily I have a great family that is helping us out right now.

My kids get food stamps and medicaid. BTW we get 600 for 2 kids and me and dh. I do not see how she can afford to sell her stamps if she has 6 kids! Someone has to be going without or with little. ANyways that is besides the point.

I did apply for tanf (welfare I guess) and they told me that because me and my husband were married and live together, we did not qualify. So because we have a healthy marriage and are together trying to provide for our kids...we can't get that kind of help.

One thing that made me mad, for more reasons than one, is that the case worker very quietly leaned forward and said "If you were black or hispanic, you would be approved for just about everything." Lets see, discrimination towards me, steriotyping towards said ethnicities, racism, and being unprofessional.

You better believe that I don't want to be in the system anymore than I have to.

I do not see how a woman can act so non-chalant about the fact the SHE cannot provide for the children that SHE brought into this world. Can anyone say Octo-mom?

I am so glad that my children are still young and they don't understand or notice that we are struggling. My husband has not had new clothes in probably 2 years and the only reason we have had to make it work for me would be interviews or pregnancy.

Sorry to write a paper on this, but it is people like this that make taxpayers ***** towards paying into medicaid. It's people like this that leech so much of the system that drain resources for people like me that are honest and just trying to survive for a little while. :banghead:

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Ugh, I know someone like this. That is definitely abuse and people like that make me crazy. Mostly because I feel the stares and judement, and have had doctors treat me like dirt, and people in stores turn their noses at me. My two daughters recieve medicaid and my youngest WIC. That is all we recieve because my Husband works two, sometimes three jobs to make ends meet. I stay home because even though I was making $10 an hour and my Husband was making $14 an hour, our daycare costs were more than my paycheck. Add $300 a month to that for insurance and it's nearly impossible to get ahead. So my Husband and I have sacrificed insurance for ourselves, and I stay home to save the costs of childcare. Thank GOD we get that insurance, because if we didn't, I'd have to work and I'd never be able to go back to school as I'm going to do this fall. My Husband works in a nursing home, and part of what makes him so invaluable to the place is his work ethic. With me home he has been able to stay when people don't show up, and always available for overtime and additional help.

I can sympathize with people in my situation, or situations similar. I married when I was 20, my family was poor and ignorant to the many ways they could have helped me to go to college. I had no one to help me or guide me towards furthering my education, and if I'd had one teacher who'd taken the time to show me it was possible, I don't think I would have jumped into getting married and having children so quickly. Unfortunately we live in a poor area, and one teacher was even let go for telling his students they wouldn't amount to anything. A terrible thing for an educator to say - but in this town, a huge percentange of the kids will not go on to college. I honestly thought I'd never be able to go, even though for the past ten years it's all I wanted to do. I just thought college was just something for other people but not for me.

I am grateful for the asssistance we recieve, but it does not come without sacrifice on our part. People who get monthly paychecks, food, rent, utilities, medical, and all these charities drive me nuts. What I wouldn't give for food stamps some days. But from what I've expereienced, these people cannot go on like this forever. I've known a few people whom I was embarassed to be associated with, who did take advantage of assistance and after so many years, were told if they didn't improve their situation, they would lose their children. People like this give honest, hardworking people who hit a rough spot a bad reputation, and I hate that anyone who gets any kind of help is automatically associated with people like this.

But, on another note, thank GOD for the help we've recieved. There will always be those people who take advantage, but I'll tell you what, I don't care what anyone has to say about me - and believe me, MANY people do lose all sense of what is appropriate and DO say things - we are so FORTUNATE and appreciative of what we recieve, and I don't know what we'd do without it. Survive I suppose, but I know that I wouldn't be going to school anytime soon.

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REPORT HER!

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Specializes in post surgical, tele, icu.

you can't have any kind of property or anything of value to get medicaid or food stamps- report her @$$ and get a picture of her driving the escalade if possible. I think some states only offer public assistance for x # of years, which helps keep people like this from abusing a program meant to help people get on their feet.

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The current system rewards the deadbeats like this twit and beats down those who are truly trying to get ahead and better themselves. Turn in her sorry posterior.....

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Specializes in NICU, Post-partum.

I reported a neighbor I had for selling food stamps.

They did a DSS visit on her, had her take a drug test, and she was on all kinds of crap.

I am glad to say her children are in a better place now...she eventually lost custody of them altogether.

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