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What Does S-CHIP really pay for??
Posted by Raven on October 14th, 2007
We make choices. As parents, a big responsibility is to provide for our children’s health care. The costs of this are high. Everyone knows this.
WASHINGTON — Single parent Donna Johnson, an office manager for a private school near Baltimore, lives on $42,000 a year and counts herself lucky that she doesn’t have to work two jobs to afford health insurance for her children.
The reason, she says, is that for $57 a month, Maryland allows her to enroll her son Evens Cross, 12, and daughter Josie Cross, 9, in the state’s version of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, which accepts families earning as much as three times the poverty level: $51,510 for a family of three.
That’s a lot cheaper than adding the kids to her individual HMO policy, which she said would jack up her monthly $200 premium to $500 or more.
Let’s see…that five hundred bucks is CHEAP compared to what my X and I paid for our health insurance when our kids were growing up. Nonetheless, it’s little over $100.00 a week…not pocket change to this woman, but I am sure if she made some lifestyle (i.e. CHOICE) changes she could foot this. Without sending her into dire poverty. She chose to have kids. She needs to accept the responsibility of the costs of raising them.
Throughout the nation, there are families like the Johnsons, working hard to make ends meet. Many have full-time jobs but seldom take vacations. They meet monthly bills for basics such as food, car insurance and housing but have little or nothing left for dining out, college savings or band uniforms.
Without affordable health coverage for their children, many say, insurance costs and medical bills would threaten to break the family budget.
uh huh…I’d like to see where the money goes in these households. And I think I have a right to know: If my government is going to foot the bill for health insurance for these families, I want to know that it’s not at the expense of other “basics”- I’m sorry but dining out, college savings and band uniforms are not what I SHOULD BE PAYING for here. Not even one penny.
In Salisbury, Md., Nikki Nelson has watched her son, Alexander, who will turn 2 in December, suffer a string of illnesses, including salmonella poisoning that required hospitalization, croup, ear and eye infections and a tear-duct problem that required surgery.
“He’s had so much happening,” said Nelson, a customer-service representative for a global-positioning-system tracking company.
As she and her husband, Seth, both 26, struggled to keep Alexander healthy, the family’s annual income peaked at about $41,000 and at times dipped to $35,000. After paying $570 a month for their mortgage, $400 a month for child care, plus the cost of food, car insurance and other bills, there wasn’t much left for health insurance, Nikki Nelson said.
She pays $32 a month for health coverage for herself through her job. Putting Alex on the policy would increase the monthly premium to $250. That’s far more than the $57 a month the family pays for Alex to be in the state program, which covered all of his medical bills, including the surgery.
“If we didn’t have this program, honestly, my husband and I would probably be working two jobs apiece to pay for the health care,” Nelson said. “We can’t afford to do the extras. We don’t eat in restaurants; we don’t do McDonald’s; we don’t do any of that stuff.”
Uh huh. Do some people live above their means? Are they doing so with the benefit of the government programs? Looks that way to me…
Last month, Seth Nelson lost his job as a salesman at a company that sells building supplies. The family’s annual income plunged to $19,500, barely above the poverty level of $17,170 and well within Maryland’s SCHIP eligibility limits.
For now, the only one going without health insurance is Seth Nelson.
NOW this is truly low income. No doubt this changes the circumstances here. I have no problem SUPPLEMENTING this families’ insurance, for a short period of time until Seth gets his feet back on the ground. Which, I like to think, won’t be months of months of “job searching”- since we know there are jobs out there. Sometimes we have to make sacrifices like working shift work- where Dad and Mom work different shifts so day care costs don’t enter the picture. You budget your income to meet your expenses and you don’t live on more than you earn. It’s pretty simple.
Government welfare programs such as S-CHIP are not meant for people who CAN afford health insurance for their children, but who make choices that push them into living above their means and therefore “limiting” them to afford this insurance. No no. This is socialism, pure and simple. I think we should ALL be GAWD damned if we’re ok with footing these bills just so some can buy band uniforms and go out to eat and take a vacation. It is NOT the role of government (and therefore we taxpayers) to cover the costs of people’s lifestyle choices. And never let them tell you otherwise- these people make choices to live the better life, not a well-to-do or wealthy lifestyle- but above their means, based on budgets that do not include basic responsibilities such as insurance.
If we see this S CHIP bulloney get endorsed by Bush- what’s next? Will we be expected to cover mortgages and rent? Or vehicles? The list could be endless- those things by which some people say are NEEDED to survive. Before we know it we’ll see programs designed to pay for uniforms and vacations and the government will hand out dinner meal vouchers to nice restaurants.
Just watch.
I’m brutal with this: I do not support welfare programs. If a local Burger King is hiring, Seth needs to take a job there. If it means he has to work 2 jobs to cover his bills, so be it. I did it. My X did it. I’ve instilled this ethic onto my daughters…YOU WORK for what you WANT. If you don’t make enough money to afford the things you need first, and want after, figure out a way to do that without relying upon the government. It’s called taking personal responsibility for your own self, family and lifestyle.
October 14th, 2007 at 5:57 pm
The danger in arguing that health care should remain a commodity instead of a right only makes it easier for terrorists and other criminals to rationalize that what they do isn’t that far out of line.
October 14th, 2007 at 7:57 pm
Not to nitpick or anything, but the government does subsidize both mortgages and vehicles. For instance, one of the big reasons that SUVs were so popular is that owners (such as real estate agents) could take a business deduction if a vehicle was above a certain weight (i.e., a light truck). There are also several tax-credits available for hybrids. Finally, the government pays for roads which arguably counts as subsidizing vehicle ownership. The government also offers tax-subsidies to homeowners on their mortgage (by allowing them deductions on their mortgage interest) to owners and subsidizes housing in a number of ways (including, but not limited to offering public or low-cost housing) and offering soldiers discouned housing through several FHA programs. The government also owns and runs the largest mortgage companies in the U.S. (Sallie MAE).
So, there you go. You could be ideologically opposed to all of these, which I assume you are, but we are already expected to support these things.
Best of luck.
October 15th, 2007 at 4:27 am
Raven – In our socialist blue state, the prison inmates get flu-shots for $4, and medications – sky is the limit – for $4…and a tooth pulled for $4! Yet 50% of the liberal locals don’t have health benefits, but they have four cars in their driveways, boats in their backyards, HDTV’s in their livingrooms, and empty Cognac bottles and Domino Pizza boxes in their trash cans! Hmmmmm? These locals deserve everything they get and don’t get! FOR THE CHILDREN 2007 my A**!
October 15th, 2007 at 10:41 pm
Yes darth…I too see evidence of all these struggling families. Yes indeed. They who do own boats and snowmobiles and who are members of the local golf club…the fancy upscale gym here in my town; they who shop at Shaws where food is outrageously expensive vs the Wal Mart two miles up the road where food is less than half…who have written to my local paper demanding this children’s program stay! BULLSHIT.
When I say I don’t want to pay for all these life necessities (boats, snowmobiles ect) I mean it. If these families can afford their own damn health insurance but CHOOSE to use the government’s version, than I am indeed buying all these things for these families. Meanwhile I cannot buy all this.
No no.
October 18th, 2007 at 11:41 am
I have 4 properties [ 3 RENTALS 1 I live in ]in md with over 1 million dollars in equity easy , I have stock and bonds and cash of over 800k. The above assets provide deffered income [ money I will recieve later in life when i retire]. I have cash in tax free items, thus no income now
I am self employed contractor in MD. I bought lots of equipment last year, a can depreciate 100k of equipment off my income right away in the first year, [ schedule c]. My income was lowered to 36k for a family of 4 after I depreciated everything. Md does NOT COUNT YOU ASSETS towards qualifying for SCHIP, they go by income only. Thus I qualify, despite lots of assets.