A couple of weeks ago the Democrats decided to have 12-year Graeme Frost present a radio rebuttal to President Bush’s weekly radio address. The topic was a bill that would expand SCHIP. It’s a federal program that helps pay for health insurance for children of the working poor. People that make too much money to be eligible for Medicaid, but don’t have access to health insurance through their employer. Bush was planning on vetoing the bill.
Graeme Frost was chosen because he enrolled in the SCHIP program through the state of Maryland. He and his sister were in a terrible car accident that left both children in comas. Shortly after the radio address, the right-wing blogosphere started looking into the Frost family. Right-wing bloggers started to publicly question whether the Frost family fit their preconceived notion of the term working poor.
They went snooping into the Frost family’s lives. Some right-wing bloggers turned to Google to try to find some dirt on the Frosts. Their address was posted online along with links to satellite photos of their home on Google. Right-wing crackpot blogger Michelle Malkin even drove by their house.
Graeme’s father, Halsey Frost, is a self-employed woodworker. Graeme’s mother, Bonnie Frost, works part-time and doesn’t have health insurance through her employer. They earn less then $50,000 a year. The Frost’s own their own home, a 1936 Baltimore rowhouse they purchased in 1990 for $55,000. It’s since been assessed at $263,140. The Frost’s own a commercial property as well. It’s where Halsey operates his woodworking business. And to think Republicans used to like it when people ran their own business.
Judging from above the photo, they also own a very nice looking pumpkin.
What were the Frost’s supposed to do, sell their home, business, and their pumpkin so they could buy health insurance?
The problem is that health care in our country is still treated as though it’s a luxury instead of a basic fundamental human right. Access to quality health care shouldn’t be a luxury for the rich or the privileged. Maybe that mindset made sense when our machines were powered by steam and our commerce was conducted with the exchange of beaver pelts.
At the end of the day, programs like SCHIP only put a band aid on the problem. Until we as a nation put into place a national health care system like the rest of the industrialized world, we will continue to have these type of problems.
Our health care problems wont be solved with a Michelle Malkin drive by.
