A happily married couple is considering getting divorced to pay for their daughter’s medical costs.
With medical expenses for their six-year-old daughter, Brighton, topping over $15,000 a year, Maria and Army veteran Jake Grey decided that the only way to cover up the financial need was through a divorce.
The Greys got married nine years ago on a Florida beach. They have since become the proud parents of two daughters, 2-year-old Fairen and 6-year-old Brighton, who was born with a rare genetic disorder, Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome. Developmentally still a newborn, Brighton requires around-the-clock attention.
“She will not be able to be on her own ever and requires 24/7 care,” Maria Grey said.
The couple has tried to get Medicaid to help with spiraling medical costs but Jake earns too much — $40,000 — for the family to qualify. The Greys applied for state assistance but don’t expect to get it because of where they fall on the list.
“We’re No. 60,000,” Maria said.
“You know, when you have a newborn, everything gets really stressful. You really have to adapt to someone needing you 24/7, all the time,” Maria stated to the source. “We’ve had a newborn for six-and-a-half years.”
The $15,000 annual expenditure on her treatment is something they pay out of their own pocket and is 30% more than their annual income.
So to qualify for the Medic, the couple is planning to get a divorce so that Maria can apply as a single, jobless mother of two.
“It would just be to get a divorce. It would be to not be together to get our child what we need,” Maria explained.
Meanwhile, Jake added, “We’ve just struggled and struggled with it, and now we’ve gotten to the point, where we feel it’s a real possibility.”
Divorce has become a reasonable option for the couple simply so they can afford their daughter’s mounting medical costs. If the couple were to divorce Maria could list herself as a single, unemployed mother of two, making her eligible to qualify for Medicaid.
Jake Grey told TODAY that this is a last resort for his family to be able to afford the health care his daughter needs.
“It’s drowning us to try to keep up with her medical expenses,” he said. “We’ve done everything we can do to try to keep her afloat, and we’re going to reach a point where we can’t do it and we won’t have another option. We don’t know what to do.”
What they need to do seems to be something they never thought they would consider — getting a divorce.
“We are not looking for charity, we’re not looking for money or donations. We don’t want a GoFundMe — we don’t want any of that,” Maria said. “I need the state to step up and give us the benefits that we need.”
The couple says they’ve gone public with their financial issues due to their lack of medical aid to raise awareness and to hopefully encourage others who are in the same predicament to speak up as well. They both insist they will do whatever they need to do to ensure Brighton continues to receive the care she needs.
“We promised to each other and to her that we’d do whatever we could do to make her life, however long she’s going to be with us, as good as possible,” Maria said.
The family is hopeful they won’t have to resort to such measures but say they will do anything to give their daughter a better quality of life.
Watch the video below for more details: