Health Care BS

Many cite Georgia’s PeachCare program as a “successful” state initiative that proves the value of SCHIP. And, if one defines “success” as creating perverse incentives that encourage parents to opt out of private insurance, they are right. But if it’s about covering poor kids, the program has gone seriously astray.

Distribution of SCHIP funds is allegedly based on the number of uninsured, low-income children in a state. However, as illustrated by this article about a couple who insure themselves but not their kids, the money is being used to subsidize many who aren’t “poor.” This couple justifies letting the taxpayers cover their children as follows:

Our income sounds pretty good until you consider all our bills … that’s why PeachCare is such a blessing. We just couldn’t do without it.

Perhaps, but what precisely are these bills that require a taxpayer subsidy? The article provides a helpful list:

Their 1997 teal Ford Winstar is paid off. But they pay $327 monthly for the 2004 red Nissan Frontier pickup beside the van in the driveway. And $750 a month for their mortgage, $250 for high-deductible health insurance for “mom and dad only,” about $360 a month for gasoline, $116 for auto insurance, $400 for food, $50 for cell phones, $80 for life insurance, $200 for electricity, $15 for water, $65 for telephone service, $120 for credit cards and $150 for clothes and “odds and ends.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that bills are a pain in the posterior. I have a few myself. But my guess is that most taxpayers would be very unhappy to discover that a program designed for low-income children is being used to subsidize such people.