Texas couple considering divorce to help pay for daughter's health care costs

SANGER, Texas (KTRK) -- A north Texas couple is considering a divorce to help pay for their daughter's health care costs.

Jake and Maria Grey have been married for nine years.

Their 6-year-old daughter Brighton has Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome, a rare chromosomal disorder that requires full-time care. Developmentally, Brighton is still a baby. She has hearing and vision impairment and seizures.

"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. We've had a newborn for six and a half years," Maria told WFAA.

The couple's family said they spend $15,000 a year on her medical expenses and with the father's $40,000 salary, they don't qualify for Medicaid, which has now left their family financially fragile.

The couple is making an extreme decision about their marriage to help with all the medical bills.

"It would just be to get a divorce. It would be to not be together to get our child what we need," Maria said.

By divorcing, Maria would become a single, jobless mother of two and would qualify for Medicaid to help with their finances immediately.

The couple fears they have no choice.

"It's morally wrong, I feel like, and I think it's conflicting for me too, because I feel like what's happening to us is morally wrong," Jake said.

"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.