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.
That was good!
“If the Frosts just wanted to cover the kids, why not enroll them in MD’s SCHIP program?”
That’s what they did.
I was responding to folks who think that $1200 per month for health insurance is outrageous by showing what folks with small businesses can pay for health insurance in Maryland.
Heck, it IS outrageous. But here in Maryland, it’s not out of the question.
sitetest
Much simpler and direct to point out that what saved his life and the life of his sister was the original unexpanded SCHIP, which Bush did not change. The system worked!
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I have enjoyed reading all of your input on this thread so far. Please don’t say that SCHIP saved these children’s lives. The EMT services and the Hospital care given them saved their lives. Children on Medicaid or on Blue Cross coverage would have gotten the same care in the same hospitals in Baltimore.
And the money taken from him to pay for those horrible public schools he doesn't use would probably pay for plenty of health insurance.
read
My kids attended private schools, and I don’t know of anyone on full ride tuition who’w family owned their own home and had $500,000.00 in investment property. Still sounds fishy to me!!
This is America... they live in a House valued at up to $500,000... they bought a commercial property for $160,000. Either this family is hiding income, has a rich family member paying their way or they are living far above their means. Get a better job... move and setup College funds and insurance with the difference between an affordable house and their high value home... the wife could go to work... but my “guess” is that they are highly proficient at scamming the system. Welfare pimps so to say.
LLS
I like your cartoon and that conveys the gist of the arguement made by the socialists.
The second generation of well off folks are sometimes like this couple. They live how they chose and let the consequences impact as they may and expect government to act as their parents have done in their early life: like a nanny state, providing that which they don’t have, but want.
All illness and accidents impacting people are filled with tragedy but tragedy, alone, should not stop us from examining the true accounting.
This whole program proposed is just Socialized_medicine-for-the-Young, so that you will be sucked into National Healthcare. We know it for the crap it is.
That was my first thought. His business probably owns their motor vehicles and as a result, he can use pre-tax dollars to pay off the car loans, maintenance costs, automobile insurance, gasoline, etc. His business could also be using pre-tax dollars to subsidize a home office, clothing, internet service, telephone, food, and travel. In addition, he could be sheltering pre-tax dollars in a 401k account, profit sharing pension fund, or other retirement account. And as the owner of a business, he could be distibuting provides as a dividend, rather than as salary, thereby reducing W-2 income.
But even if their combined income is a legitimate $45,000 per year, so what? They need to get their priorities straight. Perhaps they should live in a smaller house, take a second job, change careers, etc., rather than crying "poor me."
“Went to Zillow.com and typed in the above address and got this”
Does Zillow sell the inputted addresses it gets to Realtors? I’ve wondered if I put my address in that I’d get mail from real estate folks thinking I want to sell.
I’m amazed that a state like Maryland would have such a low minimum threshold for liability insurance.
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Liability is for personal injury of people that the insured hits. The coverage does not cover self-inflicted accidents.
Because both parents are able bodied and should provide for their own children, rather than soaking the state for their children's insurance.
Geez, I hope you are kidding.
And how about the half million dollar home they live in and the commercial property they own? Can that be explained away so easily?
I read somewhere that the grandfather built several buildings in New York. How does an upper-middle class WHITE family qualify for 2 scholarships at a private school?
Check out my post 105 for more info.
If it were up to me, I think I would get the HMO for half-price.
Thanks! Typical trust fund Liberal family.
These are people who have the ability to take care of their own, regardless. They did not do that.
My only problem with these parents is that they do not provide insurance for their children and make taxpayers do it for them, when they are perfectly able to do so themselves.
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