President Bush vetoed the SCHIP bill that would provide health insurance to children, and in some states adults, who make up to 300% of the so-called poverty level. The Democrats choose a 12-year old to tell his sad story of how he and his sister would not be here after being injured in an auto accident if it were not for the CHIP program. As usual, there is a lot of deceit in what the Democrats said. (Of course Democrat politicians wrote the kids comments.) It turns out that the kid's family is a good example of why there shouldn't be such a program as CHIP. Here is a writeup on the story by the blog 'Flopping Aces." (By the way, isn't it usual for auto insurance to have medical care coverage?)

The "Poor" SCHIP Kid

Posted by Curt on October 7, 2007 at 1:25 PM
digg_url = 'http://www.floppingaces.net/2007/10/07/the-poor-schip-kid/';

The latest liberal deception is their "tug the heartstrings" story which they rolled out nationwide by using a 12 year old kid named Graeme Frost from Maryland to give the radio response to President Bush. The kid was in a accident with his sister and were severely injured. The Baltimore Sun:
Graeme, a seventh-grader at the Park School, has a message for the president."If I could speak to him, I would say, 'You have to sign this bill,'" he told reporters yesterday during his first visit to the Capitol. "I'm guessing he wants this money for Iraq. Our future isn't in Iraq. It's here."

The blond, bespectacled youth rose at 6 a.m. in his family's home in the Butchers Hill neighborhood of Baltimore yesterday for the trip to Washington.Earlier in the week, two staffers from the office of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had called to ask Graeme about his health care experience.

Graeme and his 9-year-old sister, Gemma, were passengers in the family SUV in December 2004 when it hit a patch of black ice and slammed into a tree. Both were taken to a hospital with severe brain trauma. Graeme was in a coma for a week and still requires physical therapy.

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.

Having priced private insurance that would cost more than their mortgage - about $1,200 a month - they continue to rely on the government program. In Maryland, families that earn less than 300 percent of the federal poverty level - about $60,000 for a family of four - are eligible.

The Senate staffers wrote the script for Graeme.

So here are the facts as laid out by the Democrats. The kids parents only earn 45 grand a year and they receive no insurance through their work. Getting insurance on their own would cost 1200 bucks.

But the internet is an amazing thing. You can fact check stories like never before and this one was indeed fact checked by icwhatudo at Free Republic:
His sister Gemma, also severely injured in the accident, attended the same school prior to the accident meaning the family was able to come up with nearly $40,000 per year for tuition for these 2 grade schoolers. Confirmation both attended Park found here using edit-"find on this page"-Gemma. It will take you to an article in the schools newspaper about a fundraiser for Gemma class of 16, and Graeme class of 13.

Here are photos of the school's 44,000 square foot Wyman Arts Center: two galleries, an outdoor ampitheater, Meyerhoff Theater, Macks-Fidler Black Box Theater, practice rooms, rehearsal space, and ceramics, 3-D sculpture, woodworking, jewelry, painting, photography, digital graphics studios, recording studio, and keyboard lab.

In a Baltimore Sun article the family claims to be raising their four children on combined income of about $45,000 a year. "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."

What the article does not mention is that Halsey Frost has owned his own company "Frostworks",since this marriage announcement in the NY Times in 1992 so he chooses to not give himself insurance. He also employed his wife as "bookkeeper and operations management" prior to her recent 2007 hire at the "medical publishing firm". As her employer, he apparently denied her health insurance as well.

His company, Frostworks, is located at 3701 E BALTIMORE ST. A building that was purchased for $160,000 in 1999. The buildings owner is listed as DIVERSIFIED INDUSTRIAL DESIGN CENTER, LLC whose mailing address is listed as 104 S Collington Ave which is the Frost's home. The commercial property he owns is also listed as the business address for another company called Reillys Designs which leads to the question of whether rental income is included in the above mentioned salary total
The current market value of their improved 3,040 SF home at 104 S Collington Ave is unknown but 113 S COLLINGTON AVE, also an end unit, sold for $485,000 this past March and it was only 2,060 SF. A photo taken in the family's kitchen shows what appears to be a recent remodeling job with granite counter tops and glass front cabinets

Lets do the math here. The value of their house is up over a half a million, the value of the commercial property would have to be close to 300 grand or so now, and the family may be renting some of the property out to another company for more income. Now we come to their mortgages which I'm sure cost a bit but this family was able to send two of their kids to a private school at 20 grand a piece, so the mortgage's couldn't be killing them.

About that tuition. Didn't the article state they only make 45 grand combined per year? So after sending their kids to school they take home 5 grand for the whole year. Riiiiight. I smell unreported income here or they received tuition assistance from the Park School which would mean a couple with four children have two of them attending a private school rather then a public school at the expense of taxpayers.

Oh, and one more thing, the cost of private insurance IS NOT 1200 bucks. Rather its 700.

A check of a quote engine for zip code 21250 (Baltimore) finds a plan for $641 with a $0 deductible and $20 doc copays.Adding a deductible of $750 (does not apply to doc visits) drops the premium to $452. That's almost a third of the price quoted in the article. Doesn't anyone bother to check the facts?

This is the family the Democrats chose to represent SCHIP? If there was a more perfect family why SCHIP should not be expanded its this one. They are doing quite well with their own business, a 3000 square foot house with a beautiful kitchen:

And on top of all that they send their kids to private school.Now this is what our tax dollars should be going to!