You may remember the Democrats’ S-chip poster child, Graeme Frost, the 12-year-old boy from Baltimore, MD, whose parents relied on Maryland’s S-chip program to pay for his health care following a severe car accident. Graeme recounted his sob story to Congress in an effort to show the mean Republicans that poor kids need health insurance, too. Baltimore Sun reporter Matthew Hay Brown profiled the “poor” Frost family, but failed to ask some important questions. As it turns out, little Graeme isn’t so poor, and bloggers are on the story. Blogger icwhatudo at Free Republic did a quick Internet investigation and discovered some interesting facts about the Frosts:
Yeah, the Frosts sound dirt poor, and certainly worthy of government handouts. These revelations show the problems with S-chip. The program does not simply provide coverage to needy children. Bruce Kesler at the Democracy Project writes, “According to the official Maryland web site for its SCHIP program version, Maryland Childrens Health Care, there is no asset test for participation in SCHIP. All aboard the dole train(-wreck).” Mark Tapscott, editorial page editor of the Washington Examiner notes in his blog: “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.” If S-chip applicants were required to undergo an asset test, the Frosts likely would not have qualified. Yoshi at The Shotgun says:
Again, this family doesn’t exactly seem poor by any standards. Don Surber at Daily Mail notes:
Kim Priestep at Wizbang is outraged and says, “hardworking taxpayers who sacrifice many things such as expensive private schools and expensive houses in order to buy their own health care for their families are supposed to subsidize this family’s health insurance premiums.” Since Halsey Frost owns his own business, he should have taken responsibility and purchased insurance for his family. The Baltimore Sun claimed that it would have cost the Frosts $1200 per month for health insurance. Bob Vineyard at InsureBlog says this is ludicrous:
And Merv at Prairie Pundit adds:
Instapundit asks, “If business owners with half-million-dollar-plus homes and kids in expensive private schools now count as ‘working families,’ does this mean they’ll get tax cuts?” And Mark Steyn at The Corner sums it up:
Aside from S-chip’s faults, however, there remains another question. As John Hinderaker at Power Line asks, “Why is it that the chance of any mainstream media reporter doing easy internet research to check the accuracy of the Democrats’ story, as this Freeper did, is exactly zero?” Just for laughs: Blue Crab Boulevard writes about future S-chip recipients.
