Frankly I find health impact news (Medical Kidnapping!) to be more than a little quirky. However, I did read your link and found the citation for the quoted amount. This goes to another agenda-driven site that quotes someone who ran for office and allegedly knows from the inside what is happening with all those dollars. What I don't see is any hard and fast indication of the amount of Federal (apparently Title IV-E) dollars on a per-child basis. The second article does talk about a waiver (I believe in California) that operates similar to the way in which some states have contracted with HMOs to provide Medicaid services. Instead of a reimbursement for actual services provided--which can get tedious--an amount is agreed to, typically slightly less than the average per recipient cost based on history, and paid in all cases. So--while some cases cost far less, some others will cost far more. Now, whether this amount is $6,000 is still open to question--I haven't seen anything to substantiate that amount. In the case of the Stanley children, we are looking at a direct per-child foster care payment directly to the foster parents. We have the cost of case management--someone has had to set up the plan for the parents, locate services, monitor compliance and so forth. We know that there have been parenting classes, that is an expense. The children left home with 2 days clothing, so they probably received a voucher of some sort for the foster family to buy them some clothes. Certainly there would be purchase of school supplies. We know that the children have been seen by doctors--at least two of them for illness, in addition to whatever diagnostic screening was necessary. There is the cost of the Guardian Ad Litem for the children. Visits have been supervised by two people--this would make for personnel costs. At the parents' insistence, one of these visits was for the purpose of allowing a weekend worship at their home--perhaps an additional cost. The parents have received "psycho evaluations" (to use Michelle's terminology)--these cost money. There are legal costs on the county side (whether contracted or regular staff). Oh--and foster parents must receive regular training and supervision--another expense.
Now, I don't want to discount the reality that there are contractors providing elements of foster care who have cut all kinds of corners to turn a profit--and that kids have been hurt as a result. Because that is a serious concern. But I am also not willing to blindly leap on a bandwagon that assumes that because the Stanleys are white, Christian home-schoolers that they have been targeted in a part of some underhanded money-making scheme.
