More Leftist unconcern about truth

The "Poor" SCHIP Kid: Post below lifted from Flopping Aces. See also Blue Crab

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 than 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! Sigh..





Australia: Stupid government formula responsible for hospital disaster

Basing funding on actual demand was too simple for these brainiacs. Result was a famous meltdown at the RNS hospital

A NSW Health executive told a forum of 150 senior managers and clinicians that the high rate of health insurance in northern Sydney was taken into account when funding public beds at Royal North Shore Hospital, a senior doctor said yesterday. Yesterday, Danny Stiel, clinical director for the Division of Medicine and Aged Care at the hospital, confirmed with the Herald that he had asked the then acting chief executive of the Northern Sydney Central Coast Area Health Service, Terry Clout, whether the level of private health insurance was taken into account in the funding formula. Mr Clout, who was recently appointed chief executive of South Eastern Sydney Illawarra Area Health Service, rejected the comment yesterday.

The exchange took place at a question and answer session at the Northern Sydney Central Coast Area Health service managers forum, held at the Central Coast Leagues Club on August 29. "We've never previously had anyone admit openly that it is taken into account," Dr Stiel said. "Colleagues have said to me I've never heard anyone actually confirm that that is the case and now that we know that is the case we can at least take it into account. "My main issue was bed block . it seems to me that ours is worse because we seem to be less bedded because of this type of formula. We think we're particularly disadvantaged by our otherwise good fortune in having people with private health insurance." Another hospital administration source, who did not want to be named, first contacted the Herald about the exchange. "The question was, is Royal North Shore funded based on the fact that we have a wealthy population and we have a high rate of private health insurance, and Terry Clout said absolutely, without a doubt," she said. "His answer was 'yes, Danny, you're spot on, that's how the hospital was funded' . most people weren't really that surprised."

This follows the revelation in the Herald on September 28 by a former staff specialist, Linda Dayan, that staff were told 10 months ago it was Government policy to slash the budget because "people on the North Shore had money" and could afford to use private hospitals. The Health Minister, Reba Meagher, rejected that claim.

Dr Stiel said yesterday that he asked Mr Clout specifically if private insurance affected how many public beds were funded. "The question I was asking was, when people determined how many public beds there should be, is the private/public mix in a particular geographic area taken into account in that decision-making, so if an area is very heavily insured . is that taken into account, and the words that he said were 'absolutely'," Dr Stiel said. "What he said was 'yes, by doing that the number of public beds is likely to be less than it would have been if there had been no private beds in the area', and that explained to us that that could be why we have worse bed block than other areas."

Dr Stiel said "as a consequence [of an assumption] that you don't have to worry about funding these people because they have private beds and we can now fund areas of need, one of the unforeseen consequences of that is bed block . "The point I make is it is true, that that's taken into account. Maybe people should rethink the funding formula."

Mr Clout said yesterday the funding formula is a "health-needs adjusted, population-based formula". "What I then said was that there is clearly some correlation between a population that have a, that is more affluent, and the rate of health insurance . and to that extent there is a relationship - that's how I answered that question." He denied ever saying the rate of private health insurance was taken into account. "It's not in any way, it's not. It's a clear formula. It's those determinants of health that I have indicated to you," he said.

A spokesman for the North Sydney MP, Joe Hockey, said the hospital was also used by people from out of the area, and not all locals could afford insurance.

Source