Posted on 10/08/2007 3:28:15 PM PDT by Eric Blair 2084
The media piled on when President Bush used his veto pen on this children's health insurance bill. They tried to drop the absolute moral authority bomb on it big time and paint him as not caring about children. Now it looks like a little backfire is on the horizon.
On September 29th, 12 year old Graeme Frost of Maryland got to do the Democrats’ radio address, in which he told his story of how he and his sister were seriously injured in a car accident, and if it hadn’t been for SCHIP, they wouldn’t be here today. The Baltimore Sun did a story on the family, in which it stated the family couldn’t get health insurance through their work.
"Bonnie Frost works for a medical publishing firm; her husband, Halsey, is a woodworker. They are raising their four children on combined income of about $45,000 a year. Neither gets health insurance through work."
There were many others in the media that swallowed the story whole with its hook. All of them were missing greatly in one major thing, facts.
Freerepublic's icwhatudo, managed to find plenty of missing facts using google:
"First, Mr. Halsey Frost, Graeme’s father, owns his own woodworking design studio, Frostworks, so his claim that he can’t get health insurance through work is shockingly deceptive. He chooses not to get health care for his family. Second, Graeme and his sister Gemma attend the very exclusive Park School, which has a tuition of $20,000 a year, per child. Third, they live in a 3,000+ square foot home in a neighborhood with smaller homes that are selling for at least $400,000. "
Dan Collins concludes:
"I’m glad little Graham and his family were able to get help, and I hope he reaches full rehabilitation. But perhaps the Democrats ought to take more care in the spokespeople they choose, if they wish to tug at our heartstrings."
Then again, as Mark Steyn says:
"But who needs facts when you've got the human-interest angle sewn up?"
Roundup of blogosphere reactions at Stop The ACLU
Buying only the minimum required protection- is another choice.
This family’s lifestyle is indicative of many choices that relegated insurance to a minor concern on their part. It’s not that they could not afford it. They chose to spend their money on other things.
They are extremely dubious candidates to advocate for government subsidies and more like protoypes of typical liberal mindset that the government’s job (my job and yours) is to step in and take care of them as a result of their poor personal financial choices. At a minimum, many Mommys and Daddys choose jobs that provide health insurance.
Furthermore show me a Maryland family of 4 that makes a true $45K a year and I’ll bet there’s a state program to cover them.
I think your onto something, looking at the Dec 4 2004 link;
http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KBWI/2004/12/4/DailyHistory.html
it was a fairly nice day, calm winds, with various partly cloudy to mostly cloudy during the afternoon hours. That Rain on the Dec 1 2004 seems to have ended by 10:54 am, so it had the better part of 3 days to dry up.
Meant to add the link for weather on Dec 1 2004;
http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KBWI/2004/12/1/DailyHistory.html
Also, the chances for a Caucasian family to receive a full scholarship to a private school are practically zero (unless the kids are geniuses), so odds are pretty good the family is paying some kind of tuition. The point is, how much tuition this family is certainly paying is a valid question that the media should have asked this family. Prexisting medical conditions? Again, should have been included in their story and in fact, would have been, as it tugs at the heart strings even more and fingers big, bad private insurance.
BTTT....no black ice??? Lots of money in the family??? TAX EVASION???? Or grandpa paying all the bills?? Inquiring minds want to know!
Further, the previous several weeks had also been snow-free, so it’s unlikely there were snowbanks plowed up alongside the road, gradually melting onto the road during the day and refreezing overnight.
Nevertheless, a terrible car accident occurred. That's not in dispute. Black ice, driver error or whatever, I'm willing to give these people the benefit of the doubt that black ice is how they remember the accident. Michelle Malkin points out a newer Suburban is parked in front of the house. Also, an early commenter on the Baltimore Sun puff piece claims to know them and refers to "what kind of car they drive" as being irrelevant, the children need insurance regardless of their parents' choices. So does this family really drive a newer Suburban? Why their transportation may have cost as much as their annual income!
I am starting to believe the husband is really a bum. How could a guy who's been in business doing furniture making and repair not have his own webpage? Maybe he's so good at what he does word of mouth drives his fabulously successful business and he doesn't need a webpage? Oh, that's right, this poor slob with a working wife claims to have a combined family income of 45,000. Yeah, right.
I've searched like mad and haven't been able to come up with a website for this business. Anybody else have better luck?
“Buying only the minimum required protection- is another choice.”
Auto insurance is not the way to get one’s health insurance. Frankly, I’ve never actually seen an auto insurance quote for someone living in Maryland with personal injury protection of more than $10,000 per person. I live in Maryland and I don't have PIP of $10,000.
But I do have health insurance for myself and my family.
Many states don’t even require the purchase of some sort of PIP.
“This family’s lifestyle is indicative of many choices that relegated insurance to a minor concern on their part.”
I’m not sure that I agree. It may be that one can fault these folks for certain things.
Not getting automobile insurance that would have paid the medical costs for catastrophic trauma from a serious auto accident isn’t one of them.
As well, making sure that their children had health insurance is also not one of them. They made sure that their kids had health insurance. That’s what S-CHIP is about - getting health insurance for kids.
How they went about it is what is dubious. One wonders whether an honest accounting of their income and assets would have qualified them for this program.
That’s all that’s really in question here.
sitetest
If S-CHIP was their kid's health insurance, then "they" didn't make sure that their kids had health insurance ... you and I and all other American taxpayers made sure their kids had health insurance.
“you and I and all other American taxpayers made sure their kids had health insurance.”
No, we just paid for it.
sitetest
Well, yeah, that’s what I meant...
Part of the problem with the entire SCHIP program is that there’s significant evidence that it’s eroding the private health insurance market.
It’s unlikely that the Frosts, a family clearly in the upper half of the socio-economic strata, would permit their children to go uninsured. If there were no SCHIP, I’d bet dollars to donuts that this family would have found a way to insure their kids.
But, with SCHIP, they can insure the kids and not have to pay for it!
These aren’t irresponsible parents. Far from it. They have worked the system to provide for the needs of their family, and by obtaining free health insurance for their children, they’ve left more resources available to their family.
But that’s the problem. SCHIP is often winding up insuring kids WHO WOULD HAVE BEEN INSURED ANYWAY!
And that’s the problem with the Democrats’ new SCHIP bill - for every uninsured child signed up under the new bill, TWO insured kids would be signed up, and removed from the private health insurance system.
Which further erodes the private health insurance system.
Which increases government control of health care in the United States.
Which leads, ultimately, to nationalized, probably to single-payer health care.
* shudder *
But the parents here are not the irresponsible ones. They are doing the best they can for their family, using what resources are legally available to them. I find it difficult to fault folks for taking advantage of every legal edge provided to them.
sitetest
How fast was the SUV travelling? With injuries that severe, I'd speculate that the kids probably weren't wearing their seatbelts when the accident occurred.
1. Taking my platoon on a tour of the Konigsbacher brewery in Koblenz, Germany.
2. Enjoying a Heineken with a Big Mac at the McDonalds in Amsterdam.
3. Enjoying many pints of Guinness (draft) during our tour to Ireland several years ago. Not only did I see my son's HS band march in the St. Patrick's Day parade in Dublin, but he also performed in a concert in St. Patrick's Cathedral the night before.
I know it wasn't listed, because it's a regional beer in Germany, but I've been Konigsbacher from the first day I set foot in Germany 30 years ago.
Is there a sarcasm tag missing?
The Democrats have put this family in the crosshairs of the IRS. From self-employment taxes to gift taxes (on the grandparents), it is apparent this family is gaming the system.
For example, on SE income of $45,000, self-employment tax liability of almost $7,000 would be owed (45000 X 15.3%). AFAIK, there are very few ways to offset that liability, as opposed to normal tax credits on income taxes.
The glare of public scrutiny will most likely end up burning the members of this family. Not that Harry Reid will be bothered. He'll just move on to the next group of javelinas sucking on the government teat.
Guessing they’ll either have to have a news conference and clear all questions or plead the 5th.
One more, it was a Saturday,
Saturday, December 4, 2004,
so they weren’t getting up early to go to school.
I’m willing to give these people the benefit of the doubt that black ice is how they remember the accident.
.
An accident report might be better than their memory. And being it was a Saturday, could it have happened after a night of drinking? Conditions were clear all morning, so the ‘black ice’ defense is getting thin.
Perhaps the family will step forward and explain. They definitely owe the taxpayers an explanation at this point.
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