Graeme Frost to Attend Historic CHIP Bill Signing Ceremony

Graeme and His Family Lend Their Story to Advocate for Health Coverage for Uninsured Children

Today, Graeme Frost and his family will attend the signing ceremony of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) bill in Congress. In late September 2007, 12-year-old Graeme Frost of Baltimore delivered the weekly Democratic radio address and urged the President not to veto a bipartisan bill that would have reauthorized CHIP and expanded it to cover millions of uninsured children.  

Graeme’s radio address aired on stations across the country, and he instantly became the voice for children’s health insurance.

In 2004, the CHIP program played a vital role in Graeme’s recovery from a terrible car accident that caused severe brain trauma. Graeme was in a coma for a week and remained in the hospital for five months, where he had to undergo intensive therapy to learn how to walk and talk again. His sister Gemma, who was also in the car, sustained severe injuries, including a cranial fracture. She is now blind in her left eye and has difficulty with memory, learning, and speech.

During the time that the children were hospitalized, the Frost family relied on CHIP. Because of their experience, Graeme’s parents, Bonnie and Halsey Frost, decided to come out in support of CHIP and share their story about how the program helped their family.

“Graeme Frost and his family deserve a lot of praise because they’ve exhibited extraordinary courage and determination to tell their story publicly in an effort to show the importance of the CHIP program for their family and families like them,” said Ron Pollack, Executive Director of Families USA.

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Families USA is the national organization for health care consumers. It is nonprofit and nonpartisan and advocates for high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans.

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