Check, Please! OctoMom's Hospital Bill

I'm still attempting to not overload on Nadya Suleman, aka the OctoMom, posts, lest: a) My head explode, b) I explode, c) All nine of you who read this explode, or d) All of the above. But I was perusing TMZ and shamelessly, without permission, nor malice, borrowed the photo below because it's just too damn funny to pass up. The story behind the photo? While (thank God) OctoMom has turned down a $1 million offer to do porn, somehow she feels it is more "ethical" or "acceptable" or something to make that $1 million by selling the video of the Mocktuplets being born instead. Behold! A very funny picture depicting that very scenario!

I have a really hard time looking at that photo of her pregnant (without a For Sale sign impaled in it) without cringing and reeling back in horror. But looking at it this way, I still cringe and reel back in horror, only I'm laughing as I shield my face, screaming, "My eyes! My EYES!!"

I understand she needs to make money off of someone besides the California taxpayers. And as a California taxpayer, I'm all for that idea. I wholeheartedly stand behind anyone but me paying for her kids! Which brings me to the issue of the hospital bill. I understand that Kaiser has applied for Medi-Cal to pay for this debacle. (Kaiser, by the way, knew she did not have insurance but took her on as a patient anyway because, I'm assuming, they felt the publicity would be great. And I'm assuming that they knew that they could ask Medi-Cal to cover it. I'm not OK with that simply because Kaiser is a member-based HMO. She wasn't a member. They knew that. They took her on anyway. How is it my responsibility to pay for it? They knew what they were getting into, so they should suck it for the bill.)

According to the LA Times (who has been doing a fabulous job on this story) "2007 records show that Southern California hospitals received an average of $1,198 per day, per patient" when billing Medi-Cal for reimbursement. Take the2007 estimate of $1,198, realize that it is most likely a low estimate, and then multiply it by (sweet Jesus) eight and you'll end up with $9,584 per day. The Mocktuplets were born on January 26. I'm writing this on March 6. That's 40 days. That's $383,360 so far. Add on top of that the $150,000 that just the delivery is rumored to have cost (they had 46 doctors and nurses there for that freak show) and we're at over half a million dollars. Oh, and don't forget that SHE was in the hospital for at least two months before the gate was opened and children came spilling out. At a very reasonable 60 days and using the same reimbursement figures as above, that's another $71,880. Now we're at a whopping $605,240. I DON'T WANT TO PAY FOR THAT! (Sorry. Didn't mean to holler.)

If she ends up selling that tape to....who? Who is going to buy that? Who would want that? A clown college?? So that they can use it as training footage for clowns coming out of a Volkswagen?? Who would buy that?! (And why do they keep saying "tape"? Was it really "taped" on a "tape"? Not digitally recorded? Taped? Like on Beta?)

All sanity issues of any potential purchaser aside however, I'm going to have a huge problem with her getting to walk from the entire bill. And I'm not saying she should turn it all over to the hospital or use it all to reimburse the state. I'm saying she needs to start taking some sort of responsibility for something in her life! Ten percent. Am I out of line by saying that she should fork over ten percent of the hospital bill? I don't think I am. After all, she was quoted as saying, "My goal is to not be a burden on any taxpayers." Fabulous. Start with your OctoBill.

Wow. I thought I was just posting an amusing picture and then letting it be. Apparently, I've worked up a full lather of ire over this situation and it's not going away any time soon. By the way, mainstream media? You guys are pathetic. When I read stories about the :::gag:::: birthing tape up for sale, I keep reading that the hospital, despite the "historic nature" of the birth(s), did not videotape it (what's up with that, Kaiser?) and they don't know who did.

They don't know who did? You don't know who did? What is wrong with you folks? OctoMom said herself who taped it!! She said in an interview with Mirror.co.uk “I had no family with me at the birth. Only my friend Amira Smith. She videotaped it." There you go! Amira Smith! Amira Smith! Nice job, crappy media. Your research skills are impeccable. Haven't you guys figured out yet that you cannot believe anything that comes out of that chick's mouth? Everything that she says? Verify it. You'll find that 50% of what she says is utter crap.

Sphere: Related Content