SCHIP Foes Tear Down Poster Child

By Josephine Hearn

(The Politico)  Everyone is a target in this partisan age — even the kids (or at least their parents). 

One Republican attack group is raising questions about the net worth of a Baltimore couple whose son has become something of a poster child for the expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program that President Bush vetoed last week. 

Apparently, Bonnie and Halsey Frost own two properties in Baltimore with a combined value of more than $420,000, according to an advance copy of an article by the Majority Accountability Project. The couple also sends two of their children to the Park School, a private school with an annual tuition of $19,500, the group reports. 

Graeme Frost, the couple’s 12-year-old son who receives coverage under the popular state-run, federally funded SCHIP, delivered the Democratic response to the president’s weekly radio address last month amid much fanfare drummed up by congressional Democrats.
 
Republicans have argued somewhat strenuously that the legislation Democrats crafted would expand the program to families well above the intended income level, provoking many to drop private health care plans for their children in exchange for government-funded coverage. 

The program was created to provide health coverage for children in families who make more than the federal poverty level but struggle to afford private insurance.