Posted on 10/09/2007 5:21:39 AM PDT by radar101
ABC News' Rick Klein Reports: With debate raging in Washington over children's health insurance, congressional Democrats found a new way to make their case for an expansion last weekend: Rather than have a senator or a congressman respond to President Bush's weekly radio address, they decided to have a child who was helped by the program speak directly to the public.
But the 12-year-old boy whom Democrats chose as their poster child is now at the center of a firestorm in Washington and beyond. Conservative bloggers who uncovered some details of the family's finances are blasting the family, calling the fact that they rely on federal insurance an example of how the State Children's Health Insurance Program has expanded beyond its original intent.
According to Senate Democratic aides, some bloggers have made repeated phone calls to the home of 12-year-old Graeme Frost, demanding information about his family's private life. On Monday, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid accused GOP leadership aides of "pushing falsehood" in an effort to distract from the political battle over S-CHIP.
"This is a perverse distraction from the issue at hand," said Jim Manley, a spokesman for Reid, D-Nev. "Instead of debating the merits of providing health care to children, some in GOP leadership and their right-wing friends would rather attack a 12-year-old boy and his sister who were in a horrific car accident."
Manley cited an e-mail sent to reporters by a Senate Republican leadership aide, summing up recent blog traffic about the boy's family. A spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., declined to comment on Manley's charge that GOP aides were complicit in spreading disparaging information about Frosts.
In making the case for a proposed expansion of the S-CHIP program, Democrats found a boy who seemed like an ideal poster child in Graeme Frost, a Baltimore native whose family does not have private health insurance.
When Graeme and his sister were seriously injured in a 2004 car crash, their parents relied on S-CHIP coverage to help them recover. After House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office became aware of the Frosts through a healthcare interest group, FamiliesUSA, Democratic leaders turned to Graeme to deliver the party's weekly radio address Sept. 29.
"If it weren't for CHIP, I might not be here today," Frost said in the address, which was written by Senate Democratic aides. "We got the help we needed because we had health insurance for us through the CHIP program. But there are millions of kids out there who don't have CHIP, and they wouldn't get the care that my sister and I did if they got hurt."
But after a largely positive story about Frost appeared in the Baltimore Sun, conservative-leaning bloggers began focusing on details of Frost's family situation. They suggested the family makes the conservative argument -- that the children's health insurance program has strayed from its original purpose by subsidizing healthcare for middle-class families, not just poor children.
A blogger on FreeRepublic.com discovered that Frost and his sister, Gemma, attend a private school where tuition costs $20,000 a year. Their father, Halsey, is a self-employed woodworker, meaning that if his family doesn’t have health insurance, it’s because Halsey Frost -- as his own boss -- chooses not to purchase it for himself.
"One has to wonder that if time and money can be found to remodel a home, send kids to exclusive private schools, purchase commercial property and run your own business . . . maybe money can be found for other things," a blogger with the handle "icwhatudo" wrote on FreeRepublic.
That posting was widely circulated in the blogosphere, making great fodder for conservatives who argue that President Bush was right to veto the Democrats’ bill expanding S-CHIP.
"People make choices and it's clear the Frosts have made choice to invest in property and a business, but not in private health insurance," Mark Tapscott, editorial page editor of The Washington Examiner, wrote on his blog.
But Manley say conservative bloggers didn't dig deep enough. It turns out that the Frost children attend Baltimore’s Park School on near-full scholarships; they pay roughly $500 per child per year in tuition, he said.
Like many small-business owners, Halsey Frost can't even afford to provide health insurance to himself, Manley said.
"Last year, the Frost's made $45,000 combined," Manley said. "Over the past few years they have made no more than $50,000 combined depending on Halsey's ability to find work."
The Frost family did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
You wonder how the Frosts would be able to spend over $1200 a month to procure Health Insurance. Maybe they wanted a no-deductible policy. Seems foolish.
The IRS is now on to that, BIG-TIME..
They call it a “Lifestyle Audit”. I went through one...
One thing that fascinates me is why the school puts them on scholarship. Could it be that a wealthy grandparent (see post 30) donated money to the school in exchange for the school giving the scholarship, as a way to escape paying gift tax?
It's "in the article"-- but it's a quote from "Jim Manley, a spokesman for Reid, D-Nev."
So when ABCnews reporter Klein takes a swipe at FReepers who have the audacity to question (hey, we "didn't dig deep enough"!), he's apparently not doing any "digging" himself.
Looks to me as if Klein has merely regurgitated the words of Dingy Harry's taxpayer-paid flack. And we know what that's worth.
It would seem that the paper of record (the Balt. Sun??) would at least look into that type of skulduggery with all of the assets this family seems to have.
“A substantial portion of the population in the whole region known as Northern Virginia is made up of productive citizens who have fled Maryland over the last couple of decades.”
I know just as many folks who have moved from Virginia to Maryland as vice versa.
In the meanwhile, the state continues with exceptionally low unemployment (3.6% as of May 2007), continued job growth, and has seen less impact from the real estate decline than Northern Virginia. In fact, the worst-hit jurisdiction in the region from the real estate decline is Loudoun County in Virginia.
“And didn’t we read a story here just this week about how the state government in Annapolis was looking for tax hikes to close a huge budget deficit?”
LOL.
Don’t confuse a liberal Democrat’s lust for new taxes with an actual budget crisis. The scary “huge budget deficit” was exaggerated to $1.5 billion out of a budget of over $30 billion. But, if our budget growth had been held to the rate of inflation, we’d be in surplus.
While it would be accurate to say that Maryland would be an economic basket case if it weren’t for the huge size and girth of the federal government, the fact is, the federal government is huge, and thus Maryland’s economy percolates along very nicely.
The biggest problem that we have in Maryland is that local jurisdictions are not permitting sufficient growth in housing stock to keep up with all the new jobs.
sitetest
Didn't someone famous once say that "I can't be responsible for every undercapitalized small business in America" when people criticized the costs her socialized medicine plan would have put on small businesses?
Both Gemma and Graeme continue to receive therapy, but both have resumed the active school and social lives typical of most children their age.
Graeme is back in the same private school he attended before his accident.
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:TzrX5nQjzaAJ:www.kennedykrieger.org/kki_touch_article.jsp%3Fpid%3D4884+gemma+frost%2Bcar+accident&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us
Just one less thing for ANY business to worry about . . . which is my major U.S. corporations can be expected to be among the strongest supporters of a government-run health care system.
What many people don't understand is that the purpose of a government-run health care system in the U.S. is not to cover those who are currently uninsured . . . it's to reduce the costs of those who ARE insured -- by providing uniform, substandard health care in a way that gives people no way to complain about it.
The truth is late in the story. The typical ABC BS with the first half of the story about the family’s traffic accident and the heartless Republicans. Most do not read past the first or second paragraph.
Nice going ABC.
“Can’t afford” is a relative term. I “choose” to afford health insurance and I “choose” not to have my wife work full time.
This is Bull crap!
These kids were in a wreck caused by a car slipping on black ice. Does anyone know if these kids were wearing a seat belt? I imagine the accident report can be publicly obtained.
Isn't it funny (in a sad way) that EVERY DBM account of this accident omits mention of the driver? As if the vehicle were propelling itself?
Look, nobody wants the children to suffer. Everyone wants them to have medical care and to recover.
But when taxpayers are forced to foot the bill, they have a right to question:
(a) the parents' own responsibility for the injuries (were the kids wearing seat belts? who was driving? was the driver insured?)
(b) the parents' own capability to find a way to pay for their childrens' medical expenses -- without soaking the taxpayers.
Company-owned car, home office, Entertainment expenses going out with "clients", etc, etc can add up fast
Another brilliant creation by dead. (”Bring out your dead!”)
I believe John Edwards was adept at the Sub-S sleight of hand.
Exactly! I was unemployed in 2003 and only had six months of unemployment (which I have been paying into) which did not cover my mortgage with escrow and I still paid $500 per month to cover myself with health insurance. I had to dip into the 401K but I survived and did not take anything from the government.
These people have more property assets that I do and they leech off the taxpayers -- me, you. It's sickening.
Everyone keeps pointing to their “income”. Anyone look into assets? Note that BOTH Grandfathers were high powered professionals, one of which has made multiple significant charitable donations.
Can you say “Trust Fund”.
I knew you could.....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.