Police: Man Threw Ill Wife From Balcony

[ariesgem]

Source: Associated Press

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- A man threw his seriously ill wife four stories to her death because he could no longer afford to pay for her medical care, prosecutors said in charging him with second-degree murder.
According to court documents filed Wednesday in Jackson County Circuit Court, Stanley Reimer walked his wife to the balcony of their apartment and kissed her before throwing her over.

The body of Criste Reimer, 47, was found Tuesday night outside the apartment building, near the upscale Country Club Plaza shopping district.Stanley Reimer, 51, was charged Wednesday. He remained jailed on $250,000 bond and was scheduled to be arraigned Thursday.

In the probable cause statement filed with the charges, police said Reimer was desperate because he could not pay the bills for his wife's treatment for neurological problems and uterine cancer. Investigators said that Reimer was in the apartment when they arrived. He told them, "She didn't jump," but did not elaborate, they said. Criste Reimer's caregiver told police she could barely walk and would not have been able to climb over the railing of the balcony, according to the probable cause statement. Reimer's alleged motive emerged after several more hours of questioning, police said.

According to Jackson County Probate Court records, Criste Reimer had been in ill health for several years. Her weight had fallen to 75 pounds and she was partly blind. According to the court records, she had no health insurance to pay for medical bills that ranged from $700 to $800 per week.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WIFE_KILLED?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

[youngdem]

1. Our healthcare system is a national disgrace

I don't condone this man's actions, but I won't judge him.

If my family weren't able to pay for my grandmother's Lou Gehrig's Disease treatment, which must have ended up close to half a million dollars to treat, I can't imagine what we would have done.

Universal healthcare as a right should be added to the constitution. Period.

[The Wielding Truth]

2. National! Try global! I'm in a fix myself. Anyone else?

One son has a pre-existing back problem that we will be unable to insure once he is older and one son is in between jobs and went in for physical to get a job when the doctor ordered blood pressure tests now insurance comp says he has a pre existing condition which he did no have and will not pay.
Well, if you can't pay you find yourself in dire straights. I don't condone this guy's actions but I can understand a bit of his desperation.

[demnan]

3. If she was in constant pain (likely)

she may have also begged him to do it.

[saracat]

4. This needs to be issue number one in all Presidential campaigns!

This is the issue that is effecting ALL familes and is killing tons of Americans that we don't even know about ! They are :invisible" and unlike the soldiers cannot be counted.Universal Healthcare is the our only salvation.

[rodeodance]

5. yes, enough of this he said she said, he said crapola

[closeupready]

6. Those charges don't pass the smell test. He appeared to love her, she

appears to have been extremely ill with little chance of recovering. I don't know what to think about this.

[ChazII]

34. The lady had NF

and NF is something you live with. There is no cure for neurofibromatosis so one cannot 'recover'. I speak as a member of a 3 generation family with this disorder. Luckily no one in my circle of friends or family plans on tossing any of us out the window.

[bluestateguy]

7. And the irony...

is that this man, if convicted of murder, will then get free health care in prison for the duration of his prison term.

[NashVegas]

8. When More People Become Accustomed to Poverty, This Won't Happen So Much

Give it some time.

[THUNDER HANDS]

9. uhhh

there wasn't a better way for him to do this than tossing his wife off a balcony?

I mean, gosh.

[demigoddess]

11. if I were the wife , I would have gone for it. Quick and sure and you don't

take the chance that they find out about your plans while you are trying to get a drug to do the job.
As was said before, let us not judge the guy. We can only point fingers if we had a health car system that would have treated her with dignity until death had come naturally.

[THUNDER HANDS]

13. do we know she died instantly?

and wasn't suffering on the ground, in pain?

I mean, really, that's a horrible way to relieve the suffering of a loved one. Why don't you just throw them in the oven.

[SemperEadem]

12. sometimes desperate people do desperate things

they don't believe they have the luxury to sit down and ponder the alternatives while sipping a nice merlot...

[Tab]

10. And the other bizarre part is

if she was really down to 75 pounds, she probably wasn't long for this Earth either, so both were really "pushed to extremes". One physically, one emotionally.

[pennylane100]

14. Why are people making excuses for this murderer.

If she was terminally ill and wanted to die, he should have found a more humane, less painful way, not to mention a more dignified way to end her life. I believe in assisted suicide but this was certainly not the way do do it and I hope he gets prosecuted.

[graegoyle]

15. They aren't excuses, it's sympathy. n/t

[OzarkDem]

30. No one is making excuses for him

But its vitally important to shed light on the huge financial burdens that cancer patients and others with chronic illness face.

This poor woman's medical care was costing $700-$800 a WEEK. In most cases you have to become impoverished to qualify for Medicaid or Medicare. Even if you qualify for disability assistance, income is very low.

More and more cancer patients are giving up on treatments that could save their lives because they don't have insurance and would end up homeless to qualify for Medicaid.

[SayWhatYo]

16. That poor woman...

My first thought was what she must have thought if/once she realized her husband was killing her. I mean, even if it was only for a few final moments.

Hmm, or did she want him to do it? I didn't see any specific mention of it in the article (although it would make sense)

[superconnected]

17. Police: Man who couldn't pay for medical care threw wife from balcony

Source: Associated Press

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - A man threw his seriously ill wife four stories to her death because he could no longer afford to pay for her medical care, prosecutors said in charging him with second-degree murder.

According to court documents filed Wednesday in Jackson County Circuit Court, Stanley Reimer walked his wife to the balcony of their apartment and kissed her before throwing her over.

The body of Criste Reimer, 47, was found Tuesday night outside the apartment building, near the upscale Country Club Plaza shopping district.

Stanley Reimer, 51, was charged Wednesday. He remained jailed on $250,000 bond and was scheduled to be arraigned Thursday.

Read more: http://www.komotv.com/news/national/9194427.html

[kanrok]

18. Well, that's one way of handling the problem.

[superconnected]

19. I have to suspend judgement on whether this is a mercy killing

The real issue is that people can't afford medical care in this country.

That said, I don't agree with his motive even if he couldn't afford care.

At least it puts attention on a problem.

And I mean that even if that was just his lame excuse and he got tired of caring for his sick wife.

[provis99]

20. did she ask be thrown to her death?

Sounds like a clear case of murder.

[ohio2007]

24. well..thats his story and he's sticking to it

No Dr Kavorkian assist

[Nomad559]

21. Man Threw Seriously ill Wife From Balcony

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=162x7847

:)

[hollowdweller]

22. If she was receiving SSI wouldn't she have been covered by Medicaid?

Pretty sure most people that are found eligible for SSI also get a medicaid card.

[OzarkDem]

23. She owned some property

that probably disqualified her from getting Medicare, it happens - people who are cash and income poor, but own a few acres and can't get Medicare unless they sell. She had a little bit of property that her husband was trying to get permission to sell to pay bills, but it was tied up in probate court.

"The probate petition sought to sell the Texas property, along with royalty rights, existing wells and other equipment for $20,000 because “there are not sufficient cash funds in the estate to continue payment for the treatment and medication.”

An inventory of her assets at that time showed she had $200 in her checking account, household goods and furnishings valued at $500, an individual retirement account of $4,000, and real property valued at $2,000.

It also showed she was receiving $325 a month in Supplemental Security Income and $400 a month in royalties from the Kaiser-Francis Oil Co."

http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/story/233876.html

[hollowdweller]

25. I'm not sure if something is different about Texas but normally assets

affect the cash SSI payment before they affect the medicaid part. Part of the gov't effort to get disabled people back to work was even when they are earning above the SGA level their medicaid coverage continues even after the income gets too high for cash SSI payments.

I have had several families applying for SSI even though they would only get about 40 bucks a month due to their assets because they wanted the medicaid for their kid.

I can't find the financial info on here but looks like she would receive it:
http://www.dhs.state.tx.us/how_to.html#ltc

[DemBones DemBones]

26. She should have been able to get Medicaid if she was getting

$325 a month in Supplemental Security Income.(SSI)

She should have been getting Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits, too, if she was getting SSI.

SSDI is available to anyone who is disabled and unable to work. Owning a house or having an employed spouse and savings make no difference because you personally have paid taxes to support these programs and you're entitled to benefits, same as with Social Security Retirement.

A family's income can easily be cut in half if one partner is disabled. Sometimes the cut is even worse. SSDI pays about $600-$1200 a month, depending on how much you made in the ten years prior to becoming disabled. It does not replace your salary by any means.

Very often, a person's entire SSDI check goes for medications and doctor visits, even when they also have primary insurance through their spouse's plan that pays a part of the cost of medications. (In such cases, the private insurance is the primary insurer and Medicare the secondary.)

After you've been on SSDI for a certain period of time, you're eligible for Medicare.

It's to get SSI and Medicaid, that you have to have an income below a certain level, perhaps without owning property. As I understand it, in that situation you get both SSDI and SSI, and Medicaid. SSI is a supplement to those who are really struggling financially due to lost income and increased medical expenses. Maybe you still get Medicare, too, along with Medicaid, I'm not really sure.

I am sure it's not enough for most people.

Many doctors won't accept patients who only have Medicare, and even more won't accept those on Medicaid, because these doctors don't think they get paid enough by those programs.


Vote for Dennis Kucinich and Single Payer Health Care for ALL!!!

[OzarkDem]

29. Oops, I meant Medicaid

States have different guidelines on Medicaid eligibility since they have to pay a significant part of the cost. Gov. Baby Doc Blunt made drastic cuts in Medicaid eligibility in Missouri a couple of years ago, and the property ownership may have disqualified her.

[DemBones DemBones]

27. Yes, but there's probably a waiting period. When you qualify for SSDI,

you wait a year before you get Medicare. See my longer post below for more.

[hollowdweller]

31. Right waiting period for SSDI, for SSI (what she was getting) no waiting period

[bigmonkey]

28. Is suicide making a comeback?

In the '70s I would listen to my grandparents, who were born at the turn of the last century, tell stories of people they knew who had committed suicide as a way out of their circumstances. I though then "Well, that's just because those people had no psychological counseling," but now I wonder if it was sometimes a rugged-individual "rational" response to destitution. Or maybe I should just say that I wondered about the Reimers' circumstances when I first saw the story.

Mind you, this approach is appalling to me, and demonstrates how much the current monsters and their backers have harmed the U.S.

[ChazII]

32. Neurofibromatosis

is the genetic disorder that Criste had. I have it as well and this story hits too close to home. Thank you Magic Rat (#13) for your words of wisdom. Once reason sets back in, I will calm down. Right now, I don't even want to give this bastard a trial.

[DU GrovelBot]

33. ## PLEASE DONATE TO DEMOCRATIC UNDERGROUND! ##

==================
GROVELBOT.EXE v4.0
==================



This week is our third quarter 2007 fund drive. Democratic
Underground is a completely independent website. We depend on donations
from our members to cover our costs. Thank you so much for your support.

[ChazII]

35. Murder???

http://www.kbsd6.com/Global/story.asp?S=6951342

This story gets more interesting as details emerge.