Any birth should be a cause for celebration. When quintuplets arrive, each child healthy, it is a miracle, or close to it. Only 70 such births occur in the U.S. each year.
But many people do not view the births of the five children born to Adwai Malual of Sudan at the Anne Arundel Medical Center on Dec. 2 as a miracle. They see their lives only as a bill to those of us who will cover the costs of their uninsured births.
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They are justified. The cost will be high. According to the hospital, the average cost to care for one child in the neonatal intensive care unit, the short-term home for Nyantweny, Nyandeng, Abyei, Athei and their brother, Deng, is about $34,500 per baby, per month. That works out to about $172,500 for the five if they are released in the coming week as planned.
We do not know if Malual came to the U.S. with the sole intent to give birth to her children or if she truly became ill and could not go home. Regardless, the hospital should attempt all means possible to recoup the costs from the family and from private donations.
But assuming the worst, that Malual purposely came to the U.S. to give birth to her children knowing she could not pay for their care, how angry should we be?
In this year of financial ruin and disgrace for America at home and abroad, a woman thought we were the place to give her children a better life. That is a cause for thanks.
We should argue about the best way to provide the best medical care in Maryland and in this country. But how can we argue with a mother who wanted safety and freedom for children over perpetual bloodshed? She did what she had to — and should face the consequences. We must not waste our frustration about health care policy on her. She is a symbol and a recipient of our best, not of our failure.
We would better serve ourselves if we focused our energy on lowering the barriers to quality health care. That means making insurance portable, lowering the number of coverage requirements in Maryland and expanding the pool of people insurers can cover. Hating her will make no one in Maryland healthier or wealthier.
