Break Out Your Guns and Celebrate Your Tax Cuts: This Is America Y'All!

[U2isthebest]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071003/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_children_s_health

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

Yeah, rockon W

 

[U2isthebest]

He is so completely out of touch with how real Americans live that it's ceased to be infuriating and just become pathetic and sad.

 

[BVS]

Bush is a compassionate conservative, don't any of you forget it...









Who was saying history will be kind to him?

 

[U2isthebest]

I can't have respect for a person who would refuse something as necessary as health care to a child who has no means of paying for it him or herself. The leader of the free world cannot be this unintelligent and unfeeling, can he?

 

[anitram]

He vetoed a bill supported by 72% of Americans? Heckuva job.

 

[joyfulgirl]

Leave children behind.

 

[Vincent Vega]

Too expensive? I see...

 

[joyfulgirl]

Gotta save up for some new wars.

 

[phillyfan26]

Who was saying history will be kind to him?

I'd be shocked to see a defense for him here, anyway.

 

[nathan1977]

Did the bill in fact offer provisos, as the article seems to allude, that would extend health care to illegal immigrants?

Is there a middle ground between greedy health-care providers and inept government bureaucrats handling the nation's health care?

 

[ntalwar]

Is there a middle ground between greedy health-care providers and inept government bureaucrats handling the nation's health care?

Greedy private insurance companies I guess.
Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP are already run by the government - sure there's some fraud, but I don't think those are considered inept programs.

 

[U2isthebest]

I don't think a middle ground should even be considered on an option like this. This bill would only be for children under the age of 18 who are above the income cut-off and stipulations for Medicaid, but who cannot afford insurance. That covers a large amount of families in this country. Regardless, of why the families cannot afford insurance (be it, a low-paying job with few benefits, lack of a job, etc.) that is not something the child has control over. A child who has no means of providing for him or herself should NEVER be denied healthcare for any reason, and if the family can not afford to pay for it; the government should. I realized there is a potential for abuse, just as there is in the welfare system, but that should not matter. Regardless of whether the parents are scrimping and saving to make ends meet and are desperately in need of a law like this, or whether they're lazy people who sit on the couch all day and watch TV, that is not something the child has control over, so I can't agree with anyone who would come up with a reason to oppose this type of law. I'm also sick of President Bush's crap excuses. He said that the U.S. "can't afford the $35 billion" this bill creates. Yet, we can afford a fucking 4 year long massacre that is burning through trillions dollars and accomplishing nothing but creating heartache, pain, and suffering for thousands, possibly millions of people throughout the world. This is just another nail in the coffin of the worst administration this country has ever seen.

 

[U2isthebest]

Leave children behind.

"Screw The Damn Kids" is the formal name, I believe.

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

abcnews.com

Dems' Poster Child Faces a Firestorm

October 08, 2007 3:05 PM

ABC News' Rick Klein Reports: With debate raging in Washington over children's health insurance, congressional Democrats found a new way to make their case for an expansion last weekend: Rather than have a senator or a congressman respond to President Bush's weekly radio address, they decided to have a child who was helped by the program speak directly to the public.

But the 12-year-old boy whom Democrats chose as their poster child is now at the center of a firestorm in Washington and beyond. Conservative bloggers who uncovered some details of the family's finances are blasting the family, calling the fact that they rely on federal insurance an example of how the State Children's Health Insurance Program has expanded beyond its original intent.

According to Senate Democratic aides, some bloggers have made repeated phone calls to the home of 12-year-old Graeme Frost, demanding information about his family's private life. On Monday, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid accused GOP leadership aides of "pushing falsehood" in an effort to distract from the political battle over S-CHIP.

"This is a perverse distraction from the issue at hand," said Jim Manley, a spokesman for Reid, D-Nev. "Instead of debating the merits of providing health care to children, some in GOP leadership and their right-wing friends would rather attack a 12-year-old boy and his sister who were in a horrific car accident."

Manley cited an e-mail sent to reporters by a Senate Republican leadership aide, summing up recent blog traffic about the boy's family. A spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., declined to comment on Manley's charge that GOP aides were complicit in spreading disparaging information about Frosts.

In making the case for a proposed expansion of the S-CHIP program, Democrats found a boy who seemed like an ideal poster child in Graeme Frost, a Baltimore native whose family does not have private health insurance.

When Graeme and his sister were seriously injured in a 2004 car crash, their parents relied on S-CHIP coverage to help them recover. After House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office became aware of the Frosts through a healthcare interest group, FamiliesUSA, Democratic leaders turned to Graeme to deliver the party's weekly radio address Sept. 29.

"If it weren't for CHIP, I might not be here today," Frost said in the address, which was written by Senate Democratic aides. "We got the help we needed because we had health insurance for us through the CHIP program. But there are millions of kids out there who don't have CHIP, and they wouldn't get the care that my sister and I did if they got hurt."

But after a largely positive story about Frost appeared in the Baltimore Sun, conservative-leaning bloggers began focusing on details of Frost's family situation. They suggested the family makes the conservative argument -- that the children's health insurance program has strayed from its original purpose by subsidizing healthcare for middle-class families, not just poor children.

A blogger on FreeRepublic.com discovered that Frost and his sister, Gemma, attend a private school where tuition costs $20,000 a year. Their father, Halsey, is a self-employed woodworker, meaning that if his family doesn’t have health insurance, it’s because Halsey Frost -- as his own boss -- chooses not to purchase it for himself.

"One has to wonder that if time and money can be found to remodel a home, send kids to exclusive private schools, purchase commercial property and run your own business . . . maybe money can be found for other things," a blogger with the handle "icwhatudo" wrote on FreeRepublic.

That posting was widely circulated in the blogosphere, making great fodder for conservatives who argue that President Bush was right to veto the Democrats’ bill expanding S-CHIP.

"People make choices and it's clear the Frosts have made choice to invest in property and a business, but not in private health insurance," Mark Tapscott, editorial page editor of The Washington Examiner, wrote on his blog.

But Manley say conservative bloggers didn't dig deep enough. It turns out that the Frost children attend Baltimore’s Park School on near-full scholarships; they pay roughly $500 per child per year in tuition, he said.

Like many small-business owners, Halsey Frost can't even afford to provide health insurance to himself, Manley said.

"Last year, the Frost's made $45,000 combined," Manley said. "Over the past few years they have made no more than $50,000 combined depending on Halsey's ability to find work."

The Frost family did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

 

[U2isthebest]

Wow. Harassing innocent kids, these Republicans have sunk to a new low. I didn't know that was possible. I'm so glad they're trying to keep unneeded government provided health insurance from going to those disgustingly wealthy families that make $45,000 a year.

 

[A stor]

I live in Baltimore and work part time, at John Hopkins Hospital. You would be shock at the amount of patients, who are either under insured or have no health insurance, what so ever. John Hopkins will not turn away any patient, regardless of ability to pay. And do you think that for one second, Mr. Bush cares about these folks?

Mr. Bush says there are plenty of jobs. Right! Try supporting yourself and the kiddies, on what the Wal-Mart pays.

I want to see Mr. Bush live in Baltimore on what my husband and I earn per year.

All Mr. Bush cares about is "saving face." He took America into war and the occupation of another country.

Thank God he can not run again for the U.S. Presidency.

 

[U2isthebest]

I live in Baltimore and work part time, at John Hopkins Hospital. You would be shock at the amount of patients, who are either under insured or have no health insurance, what so ever. John Hopkins will not turn away any patient, regardless of ability to pay. And do you think that for one second, Mr. Bush cares about these folks?

Mr. Bush says there are plenty of jobs. Right! Try supporting yourself and the kiddies, on what the Wal-Mart pays.

I want to see Mr. Bush live in Baltimore on what my husband and I earn per year.

All Mr. Bush cares about is "saving face." He took America into war and the occupation of another country.

Thank God he can not run again for the U.S. Presidency.

That's wonderful about John Hopkins! What do they do in the case of an inability to pay? Do they do work out payments in small increments? I've heard about hospitals that do that, but I still don't think it's a proper solution.