The Victimization of Graeme Frost

The national debate about health care is reaching new lows with each heart-wrenching chapter, the latest is the Graeme Frost Tragedy. Graeme is a hero, no question. He has endured more than any 12 year-old should. He appears to be a smart kid who is articulate and by all accounts hard-working. He sustained life-threatening injuries and was hospitalized and still undergoes therapy. Now he has has been subjected to the circus of our pop culture punditocracy. It's an atrocious spectacle by any measure.

Paul Krugman, with whom I agree on nearly every issue, has taken the opportunity to pen a column on the “Sliming of Graeme Frost.” When I saw the title I fantasized that Krugman was taking his sharp aim at the true culprits in this crime, but alas, he has instead emptied is revolver on the easier, albeit improper, target. Instead of holding our congressional leaders to task, he spent precious ink blasting the right wing noise machine.

Graeme Frost bravely and with the precious naivete of a good kid went before the nation to represent the Democrats in the Saturday radio address last week. He was also trotted out in front of the TV cameras with Uncle Harry and Aunt Nancy for a photo op in support of the expansion of the S-Chip grant to provide health care for the working poor. To the feigned surprise of all, the vile right wing misanthropes stalked the Frost family and found all the dirt they could, true or not, that could be printed and screamed over the airwaves. Harpies like Michelle Malkin and blowhards like Rush Limbaugh have sold ad time with their baseless campaign to smear the Frost family. Hmmm, who could have predicted that?

Unfortunately, economist commentators such as Krugman have made this debate as much about the sliming of Graeme Frost as about the true debate, which is the unsustainability of the current health care system and ways to fix it. He should know better, and more importantly our Democratic leadership should know better-- and do better. And we rely on writers like Krugman to provide comment about our political leaders, not about the misbehavior of Limbaugh and Malkin.

If Pelosi and Reid would spend more time noodling the health care crisis and crafting legislation to provide a comprehensive program for all Americans and less time pandering to their constituents and subjecting kids like Graeme to the venom of right wing morons, then maybe we could actually accomplish a sustainable fix to the problems we have. And why doesn't Krugman recognize this?

Graeme said, "Most kids my age probably haven't heard of CHIP, the Children's Health Insurance Program, but I know all about it, because if it weren't for CHIP, I might not be here today." While this kid may believe this, it isn't exactly true. Emergency care is always provided regardless of the patient's ability to pay. Without S-Chip, Graeme's father Halsey may have been sent a bill, he may have had to sell some of his assets, he may have had to even file for bankruptcy but the fact is that Graeme would hve gotten the care he needed with or without S-Chip. The drama may get votes for Democratic candidates, but it moves us not one inch closer to a solution.

As the New York Times points out: Under the Maryland child health program, a family of six must earn less than $55,220 a year for children to qualify. The program does not require applicants to list their assets, which do not affect eligibility. The TIME coverage points out: “In short, just as the radio spot claimed, the Frosts are precisely the kind of people that the SCHIP program was intended to help.” Exactly. The Frosts qualified for the old version of S-Chip. The expansion of coverage into the middle class is not necessary to provide for working poor families like the Frosts. The Congressional plan which was vetoed by George W. Bush is an expansion of the grant program to give benefits to more middle class folks, so why is this family's plight even relevant?

Hasn't Graeme Frost been through enough already, and shouldn't his parents know this? Halsey Frost is a father who cannot provide for the basic needs of his large family-- fine; but the least he could do is protect his kids from the cruel vagaries of our grotesquely partisan political system.

Halsey Frost, Graeme's father, bemoans his family's situation, “We work hard, we’re honest, we pay our taxes. There are hard-working families that really need affordable health insurance.” First of all, let's be honest: Mr. Frost does not pay taxes, or at least not a significant amount of federal taxes, which is the pool that covers this grant program. By my estimate, assuming a standard deduction, the very most the Frosts' pay in federal income tax is $1300 per year, but most likely they pay nothing. Halsey is correct that working families need affordable insurance; S-Chip is not the answer mainly because it is not insurance, it's welfare.

Certainly through no fault of their own, the Frosts were not asked to pay anything for their health care coverage. The federal legislation is based on self-reported income and does not require premiums or co-pays (although states have some latitude) or listing of his assets. How much did the Frosts pay for their S-Chip coverage? My guess is very little, if anything. Now we are going to expand this program to middle class families with no requirement to pay tax or premiums? Suppose Frost's business takes off and he enjoys more success in the years ahead. Would he have incentive build more equity in his business in lieu of salary, thus perpetuating his welfare status? Would other more prosperous families who are close to the S-Chip income cut-off be tempted to work less in order to get these benefits?

In short, this debate has been side-tracked by the completely predictable sliming of Graeme Frost, and the counter-sliming of the right wing idiocracy by the Democrats. What this country needs is a comprehensive health care policy, as every other developed nation has, and the debate needs to be managed by the adults in our congressional leadership and not some well-meaning kid who would be better off in school. The current health care patchwork with it's creeping reliance on welfare and now pandering to the middle class and the glorification of victimization is simply not sustainable.

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My next post will attempt to flesh out the requirements of a national health care policy. Be patient, there are no easy answers. A note to Anonymous: this is not about me. I'm not a pediatrician or even a primary care doctor, but I do recognize the obvious, and the obvious is that in real dollars primary care doctors' salaries have dropped, residency programs cannot convince medical students to pursue these careers and a shortage of these physicians is worsening.