MR

One more example of how fucked up the healthcare system is in this country!

Medical Costs End 48-Year Marriage

Rudy Friece and his wife, Emily, married within a year of dating. It was a simple civil ceremony at a courthouse in Liberty, Ohio on Rudy's 21st birthday.

Nearly 50 years later, following two children, seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, Rudy Friece had to divorce his wife of 48 years (who has since passed away). The reason? There was no other way for them to afford her chemotherapy treatments, which wouldn't be provided to her if she remained married.

After learning from a friend that by dissolving their marriage Emily could qualify for Medicaid, the couple walked into a drugstore, picked up a guidebook on dissolutions and then marched into an Ohio courthouse in February 2005, their $75 divorce petition in hand. "He [the judge] told us, 'This was the first. I've never given anyone a dissolution that had been married this long,'" Rudy Friece recalled.

The Frieces are part of a small but growing number of elderly or low-income couples who have felt the need to dissolve their marriage in order to qualify for government-funded health coverage for a sick spouse.


John from Boston

Enigma869 wrote:One more example of how fucked up the healthcare system is in this country!

Medical Costs End 48-Year Marriage

Rudy Friece and his wife, Emily, married within a year of dating. It was a simple civil ceremony at a courthouse in Liberty, Ohio on Rudy's 21st birthday.

Nearly 50 years later, following two children, seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, Rudy Friece had to divorce his wife of 48 years (who has since passed away). The reason? There was no other way for them to afford her chemotherapy treatments, which wouldn't be provided to her if she remained married.

After learning from a friend that by dissolving their marriage Emily could qualify for Medicaid, the couple walked into a drugstore, picked up a guidebook on dissolutions and then marched into an Ohio courthouse in February 2005, their $75 divorce petition in hand. "He [the judge] told us, 'This was the first. I've never given anyone a dissolution that had been married this long,'" Rudy Friece recalled.

The Frieces are part of a small but growing number of elderly or low-income couples who have felt the need to dissolve their marriage in order to qualify for government-funded health coverage for a sick spouse.


john from Boston

stop medicad.

Tito wrote:stop medicad.

Well, from a technical standpoint, I don't believe the article is correct. I believe that Medicare is for elderly folks, while Medicaid is for those who are younger and can't afford it. As for your not so eloquent "stop medicad" rant...Are you suggesting that if people can't afford health insurance that we should just allow them to die??? If that is your position, you're one fucked up individual!


John from Boston

Medicaid is for low income people. They can be on Medicaid and Medicare as well. Age really isn't a factor.

I'll paste this for the curious.

Medicare is a federal health insurance program for people age 65 and older, certain people under 65 with disabilities and certain people with kidney disease. Medicaid, which is administered by the states, is a program of health coverage for certain people with low incomes or very high medical bills. Eligibility for Medicare depends on age or disability only; eligibility for Medicaid depends on age, disability or family status and on an individual’s (or family’s) income and resources.

My grandad contemplated divorcing my grandmother several years ago for similar reasons. To get government assistance with her nursing home bill, she had advanced stage Alzheimer's and he could not take care of her, he had to draw down all of their assets to less than 50%. This included retirement money, house, cars, everything. Fortunately, I suppose for her and him, she passed away before he had to make that decision.

End of life decisions are not easy in any way, at any age. If you can get long term care insurance, do it.