The Frosts
While I find the attempted right wing smear job on the Frost family it highly distasteful, what’s far more important is just how wrong the Malkin and her ilk. The Frost family isthe best example for why we need programs like S-CHIP. They own a small business, pay their taxes, and have kids with preexisting medical conditions (both were in a horrible car accident) so it would be almost impossible to get affordable private insurance, especially buying as individuals. What the right wing smear mongers did was expose this to all of us. And while I don’t endorse the borderline harassment, there could have been some real journalism here.
If the Frosts had actually been, say, crack dealers on the side who were enrolling in S-CHIP because they couldn’t declare their crack income and thus appeared to be poor for tax reasons, then the bloggers would have done their job. It would be a reasonable line of attack if the kid the Democrats trotted out as an example of why they needed to pass a piece of legislation was actually an example of why not to pass the bill. Of course, it turned out the kid is the perfect anecdote for why expanding S-CHIP is a good idea. And so not only did Malkin reveal herself, once again, to be an indecent human being, but more importantly, she was just wrong.
Check out Jon Cohn for a much more in-depth take on the entire situation.
Matt,
2 points.
The behavior of Malkin, Riehl and company has been irresponsible, intrusive, inconsiderate, and reprehensible. In other words, pretty much standard operating procedure for reporters chasing a story. Please note that I’m not disagreeing with your condemnation, just noting the irony that they have taken on all the characteristics that they used to decry in the (their phrase, not mine) main stream media. Callous, ideologically blinkered, and never letting the facts get in the way of a good narrative.
Also, I think it’s important to remember that the Frosts are at the upper bound of what a program like S-CHIP is meant to cover. They are a solidly middle class family that suffered a terrible, unforseeable misfortune, and clearly they need help now. It would be a stretch, however to suggest that they needed goverment assistance before the accident. At that point, private health insurance, while a significant expense, was within reach of their budget.
They have been unable to get on a plan since the accident, because what they need now is health care, not health insurance. (That is to say, they need assistance with the cost of their childrens’ care, and these costs are a certainty, not a risk that can be insured against. You can’t have a risk pool on a risk of 100%)
This is the point at which they requested, and received government help. Maryland’s S-CHIP has provided exactly what the family needed, so well that the Democrats used them as advertisements for the program. This hardly (to me at least) argues that there is a desperate need for greater S-CHIP funding, but rather that the program is meeting its goals as it currently exists.
heedless
October 11, 2007 at 12:06 pm
Its because the Frosts were a good example of why SCHIP is necessary that the Right Wing went so crazy.
Joseph
October 11, 2007 at 5:01 pm