but I ain’t slaughtering the fatted crow, yet. The NYT covers the Frostfuffle today, and Malkin’s in the article. Here’s a telling bit:
In a telephone interview, the Frosts said they had recently been rejected by three private insurance companies because of pre-existing medical conditions. “We stood up in the first place because S-chip really helped our family and we wanted to help other families,†Mrs. Frost said.
Well, yeah. Now there are pre-existing conditions. Do I want them to do without? Nope. But as I stated yesterday in comments to SEK, if there’s no asset testing, and they wish to expand coverage, it creates a disincentive to be proactive. That and the intended expansion of medical coverage for immigrants who’ve entered the US illegally seem to me fiscally absurd. But then, the Dems will turn around and say, “Look at the percentage of the GNP that’s being expended on health care! We need to have a single-payer system to rein in the waste!”
The piece doesn’t address whether or not the Frosts had auto insurance with personal injury coverage, either, which would have footed a substantial portion of these expenses, I’m sure. Here’s Michelle’s response to her critics and the article.
Topsecretk9 asks whether we can verify that the NYT reporter is the person who asked Chuck to remove his post containing Malkin’s home address and phone, so as not to generate sympathy for her in this matter. Chuck seems to indicate that this person is a blogger, also, so it’s probably not the NYT guy. Not Her Real Name at Free Speech has some thoughts on Chuck “Screw ‘Em” Adkins, defender of children, as well.
AMUSING UPDATE: topsecretk9 and thor get into a spat in the comments to prior post
One thing that is kind of getting lost in all this is the notion these children would have been left bleeding by the side of the road if not for these programs. They would have been taken care of, the real issue is are the parents to be held responsible in any way for the bills.
They’re throwing up more smoke and mirrors. If these folks had a bit of brain or innovation, they could have gotten group health insurance and the preexisting conditions wouldn’t have mattered, much anyway.
Since they both were employees of Frostworks, assuming the company is actually incorporated, they could have qualified the company for a group insurance policy with two employees. All that has to be done is prove that both employees made minimum wage in the tax year prior to the year requesting coverage. HIPAA requires that group health insurance policies only have a restriction on coverage due to preexisting conditions for a year, and if the employees and their dependents have previously had health insurance, that time is credited toward the year. It’s not the cheapest option out there, because group insurance policies necessarily cover future pregnancies, but it guarantees coverage.
I’m surprised this family received what they claimed are near-full tuition discounts, simply because they’re blonde and white. I would think that fancy private schools would be more interested in attracting a ‘racially diverse’ population and would spend their scholarship dollars to that end.
Yeah, parents (and apparently grandparents) who evidently do have or could have the resources to at least contribute in some manner to the health care of their OWN family members, something the increase in taxes necessary to fund SCHIP’s ridiculous expansion would prevent responsible, hard-working parents from doing.
Not to mention they look like hippies.
I hate hippies.
asset testing, creates a disincentive, etc.
This is not about economics. These are not free exchanges. If you argue like they are, you’ve already lost. And you’ve granted your opponents a humanity they don’t possess.
The attraction to any redistributive policy is solely to the abuse it delivers to people who can’t stop it. This is about stealing from the powerless. What’s done with what’s stolen is of no significance.
Do I want them to do without?
I do. Fuck these monsters.
I mean these particular children, psychologizer. I’m afraid that as regards their care, I don’t want them to suffer any more than they have to for their parents’ improvidence.
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one merely has to look at how “free lunch for poor kids” programs at public schools has turned into “free breakfast and lunch for everyone… and you’re pretty stupid if you pass up to feed your kid at taxpayer expense” programs to see where the Dems are trying to take SCHIP.
– This isn’t about the kids. The Lefy is running the same scam they did with Roe vs. Wade. Bush veto’d the bill because it has parts that effectively extend free, or nearly free, health care to niddle class families. Everyone is so busy arguing over two children out of millions that this original bill was supposed to help the real purpose of this sneaky effort by the Leftyrds is being shoveled under the table. The original program was being abused by adults, and now the Left wants to extend that abuse. If they’d have written the proper words into the bill it would have passed already, and Frosts kids would be covered. So who really caused the problem in the first place?
– The Bill needs a means test section and NO adults coverage. Its supposed to be for the children of marginal/poverty means children, not irresponsible parents.
– Until they clean up their act in Congress, tell the Dems/Left to go fuck themselves.
Am I going off topic by pointing out that one reason the kids were at a private school is that the public schools in their area are reportedly horrible? Have the Frosts made any radio addresses complaining that the Maryland Dems don’t care about children because they won’t educate them?
The parents could sell their house, move 30 minutes up I-83 to York County, keep the kids in great (public!) schools and pocket a cool quarter-million.
Look, so long as CMS retains some ability to control the formula and set restrictions on eligibility I’m not too worried. If CMS can allocate funding based on 250 pct. of FPL, for example, then States are simply cutting into funds for intended beneficiaries when they expand eligibility radically upward, as many are doing. There are political costs to be borne for that.
I fully expect all the “$83k is a LIE!!1!one!” folks to file amicus briefs on behalf of CMS when Spitzer sues, by the way.
And I think the program ought to have performance standards with public reporting, which I believe is still not in place several years after its first PART review
(www.whitehouse.gov/omb/expectmore/summary/10000306.2003.html). It only got an “adequate” rating last time.
Is Chucky boy in the running for biggest douche in the universe? Sounds like he should be.
Spitzer suing? New York should thank the rest of you chumps. We’re spending more than the next 3-4 states on this program already.
Homi:
That may be the result but a walk through of his vileness and narcissism suggests a deeper, darker psychological diagnosis than just ADHD. Attachment disorder with some manic tendencies, maybe. The cuckoo is not getting completely out of the door at the top of the hour.
My outrage melts away and is replaced by sadness and concern. Seek. Professional. Help.
I’m just curious to see whether Michelle will take up Ezra Klein on his offer to debate her anytime, anywhere, on SCHIP.
Free breakfast and lunch for all kids? They’re doing that? We pay for our son’s lunches. In addition to paying for his all-day kindergarten.
I’m thinking more and more that we need to get Frost’s accountant to do our books. I’d also be interested in seeing if Mr. Frost offers a cash discount for his services.
I can understand with the medical problems the kids have, why one of the parents would feel the need to stay home with the kids – you end up having to take a lot of time off with doctor’s visits, physical therapy, etc. But between the two of them, one of them should have been able to score a full-time job with health insurance. Heck, even Charbux offers health insurance these days, and given their customer service, I’d say they’re pretty freaking desperate to hire anyone.
I think Michelle’s got some pretty good ammunition, tom.
Here we have a program that was explicitly intended (see the statute) for “low-income uninsured children” being used for middle-income children, insured children, and childless adults; that has a broken funding formula; and that has no performance measures.
Like I said, the roof doesn’t come crashing down if the veto is overridden because of what CMS is still empowered to do, but this is precisely the kind of scope creep that makes people like me suspicious of even modest new programs. Some of the opposition I hear is perfectly principled.
Yes. The Malkin-Klein debate. I’m super curious about that.
We’d all (both sides) likely end up feeling that our chosen partisan won, because we analyze the facts and circumstances quite differently.
We still have the notion of a “deserving poor,†meaning people who are impoverished or continue in true poverty through no fault of their own, and who need some kind of temporary hand to get on their feet and back into (ideally) the working world.
The Leftists look at the Frosts and see their preferred French-lite lifestyle. Daddy is an artisan who works raw wood into “magnificent artifacts.†(and not bongs, I’m sure) Mommy bobs about between part-time publishing and tending the hearth. The children (one he, one she – and no more than two) are free-range, precocious, androgynous, bookish scamps with designer disabilities and pretentious, oddly spelled names. They live in a hipster, urban, (cum gentrified) and probably racially diverse neighborhood. Neither of the “adults†feels the need to engage in the “administrative†aspects of adult life – the planning and providing. The very thought that wealth and income are distinct, but that money held in assets is the same as other any money – i.e. fungible – of this fact they remain innocent. You see, the Leftists do not empathize with the Frosts – they admire and emulate them. Don’t you think that this lifestyle is the one that Amanda Marcotte pines for? 16 hours at Starbucks per week and all her material needs provided for so that she can smoke up and blog?
So, really, what is the point of any debate?
I keep asking this everywhere I wander–the kids were hurt in a car accident, where is the auto liability insurance? The so-called pre-existing condition should be covered by the auto insurance.
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