GOP smears: Graeme Frost and the $83,000 SCHIP family

The primary talking points from the GOP on the SCHIP bill scheduled for a veto override vote this week are that many well-to-do middle-class families with private health insurance are getting coverage, rather than the the poor who deserve it. Those false claims were part of the smear effort that targeted 12-year-old Graeme Frost who received SCHIP's help to recover from a car accident that could have seen him die without medical care. You can see Graeme's parents tell the true story in this Keith Olberman interview. Some right-wingers and bloggers called to make death threats and urge that Frost and his family be "strung up."

Now, Georgetown University's Center for Children and Families has released the definitive rebuttal to these wild exaggerations and falsehoods by the Bush administration and its right-wing minions. But because the GOP spinmeisters don't care about facts when promoting their ideology, it's important for anyone living in the states with the 20 GOP congressmen who voted against children's health to contact them to let them hear your views, as detailed in this article. (Essentially, call toll-free at 1-800-828-0498 through Families USA to reach your legislator.)

Despite the GOP's myth-making, there isn't a single family in the entire U.S. receiving SCHIP help that gets anywhere near the $83,000 claimed by the administration, and over 90 percent of the recipients earn less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level for a family of four -- exactly the people SCHIP is supposed tocover. As the center reports:

CCF Fact Sheet: $83,000 SCHIP Family Doesn't Exist

The truth about who's eligible for State Children's Health Insurance Program coverage has become blurred in the debate to reauthorize SCHIP, with the mythical $83,000 SCHIP family making headlines. The misleading contention that SCHIP covers children at this income level leaves the false impression that SCHIP is a program that no longer focuses on lower income children or that SCHIP reauthorization would turn it into such a program.

The Georgetown University Center for Children and Families has released a fact sheet
with new data on the income levels of the children participating in SCHIP.
Here are the facts about who's enrolled in SCHIP:

 There currently are no children enrolled in SCHIP with family income of 400
percent of the federal poverty level ($83,000 for a family of four).

 More than nine in 10 children (91.3 percent) enrolled in SCHIP are from
families with incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty level
($41,300 for a family of four).

 More than 99.95 percent of the children in SCHIP have income below or at
300 percent of the federal poverty level ($62,000 for a family of four).

The SCHIP legislation, Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of
2007 (CHIPRA), approved by Congress but vetoed by the president would provide
health coverage to nearly 4 million uninsured children -- reducing the number of
uninsured children by nearly a half. The vast majority (84 percent) of these children are
from the lowest-income families who already are eligible for SCHIP or Medicaid. The bill
would not increase states' flexibility to expand coverage to families with more moderate
incomes; in fact, CHIPRA would constrain that flexibility.
CCF's fact sheet, Coverage of Uninsured Children in Moderate-Income Families Under
SCHIP, and summary of the CHIPRA legislation are available online at
http://ccf.georgetown.edu/.

Those are the facts. But facts don't mean much amid the political mud-slinging over SCHIP by the GOP, so that's why you need to register your views by contacting your member of Congress through Family USA's Action Center , especially if you live in the district or state of one of the 20 members of Congress who oppose the SCHIP expansion. Here's the list again, and let them know your views:

If your Representative is on the following list, call today and urge him or her to vote YES for health insurance for children in low-income working families. And if you know people in those states, forward this email and ask your friends and colleagues who are constituents to make the call.

Use the toll-free number 1 800-828-0498 set up by Families USA to access the Capitol switchboard, which will connected you to your Representative's office.

Target List of Representatives
AL Robert Aderholt
AR John Boozman
CA Brian Bilbray
CA John Doolittle
CO Marilyn Musgrave
FL Gus Bilirakis
FL Ginny Brown-Waite
FL Tom Feeney
FL Rick Keller
IL Judy Biggert
IL Tim Johnson
IL Peter Roskam
IL Jerry Weller
LA Rodney Alexander
MI Joseph Knollenberg
MI Thaddeus McCotter
MI Tim Walberg
MN Michelle Bachman
MO Sam Graves
NJ Rodney Frelinghuysen
NJ Scott Garrett
NJ Jim Saxton
NY Randy Kuhl
OH Steve Chabot
OR Greg Walden
PA John Peterson
TX Kay Granger
VA Thelma Drake
VA Randy Forbes

Republicans Who Didn't Vote
CA Wally Herger
WY Barbara Cubin

Comments

[JudyGee]

Not to worry, very soon now no family provider will be earning 83K. The big deal income, especially the net take home, has the chords standing out on the necks of those who would deny healthcare to all citizens. To them, children are no different. Indeed, the trillions in war money, the billions that line the pockets of the corrupt and traitorous, bothers them not at all. Nor, do the dead Iraqi children, or tiny broken bodies, or our children, the brain damaged veterans, the maimed, the inexorable line of coffins that keep coming.
Vacant, empty of compassion, what do they care about, one wonders. Perhaps standing on a pile of money, they could imagine that people are looking up to them. There is a precedent for this kind of thinking. Monkey status (my apologies to monkeys) is determined by the highest piles of bananas and leaves. And, all they have to do is run around and collect it.

[Desiderata]

A better idea would be opening up some workhouses for these urchins__Mitch (Scrooge) McConnell.

[RDixon]

"Despite the GOP's myth-making, there isn't a single family in the entire U.S. receiving SCHIP help that gets anywhere near the $83,000"

That is quite correct.
Why, I wonder do you leave out the FACT that this is true for the SCHIP program as it is now?
The question is: Will that still be a true statement if the new, revised, and vastly expanded SCHIP program gets passed and becomes law?
The pertinent question for me is this:
Should a family making $50,000.00 per year or more be eligible for welfare?
Especially considering that the money to pay for it will be taken from people who make much less than $50 K per year.

After watching the past 9 months with Democrats supposedly in charge, i have to come to the conclusion that I am better off with Republicans in power and will be voting accordingly next November.

[mae692]

SCHIP is not welfare and you know it. Also, I suspect your voted republican last time.

[cynara]

As an answer to your question: Yes, the expansion of SCHIP dedicates more money to the program, but does not make any changes or recommendations to the income level cap.

What does welfare have to do with this? Childrens health care is not a handout. It is ensuring that children are able to go to the doctor, mommy can't run off to Vegas or use it on cigarrettes, the only thing that SCHIP gives families is a chance to have regular doctors visits. OOOOOoohh, the socialism!! BWAAAA!

[QueenMaedb]

All I have to say is...

I was laid off several years ago. I got a six month severance, including health benefits. I chose to goof off for a while - I went to Europe for a month - so I had three months to find a job.

I ended up having to pay one month of COBRA - $660 !!!! Holy Jesus Tap-Dancing Christ! And that was in 2004!!! There's NO REASON health care ought to cost that much - except that we're relying on private companies.

Did it ever occur to these neocons who believe so much in entrepreneurship that some folks - like me - never started their own business because health care is so prohibitively expensive?!?!?! That, if I knew my taxes covered me - and everyone! - I'd feel a lot better about starting a business?!?!?!

- Maedb

[Kansas Evans]

I have another question.

Why would it be a problem if people left private insurance for public insurance? Wouldn't that mean the public insurance is better than private insurance and maybe we should overhaul private insurance?

Oh! Wait! Nevermind. I just answered my own question.

[UtahDemocrat]

I think it's highly amusing that a pretty partisan Senator (Orrin Hatch) from one of the reddest states (Utah) co-sponsored the original CHIP bill and is now one of its biggest advocates, yet the President vetoes and trots out the "socialized medicine" bullcrap.

Well, Sen. Hatch, I'm glad you have it right this time, and I applaud your stance of not being in lockstep with Pres. Bush.

[cynara]

One "fact" thats being tossed around is that people are eligible up to the age of 25. Thats completely incorrect. The actual text of the bill vetoed by president bush clearly states that children up to the age of 19 are eligible, and STATES have the option of raising the age limit to 21. Never is the age 24 or 25 mentioned.