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Politics

At center of SCHIP fight, Florida toddler

She and her parents join Pelosi to tout kids' health care program.

By WES ALLISON, Times Staff Writer
Published October 18, 2007

Dara Wilkerson and daughter Bethany, 2, of St. Pete Beach on Capitol Hill in Washington.
	[AP photo]

WASHINGTON -- Bethany Wilkerson, 2, has curly blond hair and a button nose and bright, blue eyes. On the morning she joined the speaker of the House for a news conference inside the U.S. Capitol, she wore navy pants with white polka dots and a matching blouse, a gift from a friend at a bowling alley, and toyed with a small stuffed rabbit called Pinky.

"Cameras!" she cooed from her mother's lap. And the cameras just ate her up Wednesday. But in politics these days, being cute isn't enough.

Bethany is the latest poster child for those who want Congress to overturn President Bush's veto of a children's health program for lower-middle income families. The vote in the House is scheduled for today, and Bethany and her parents, Dara and Bo, who live in St. Pete Beach, have spent much of the week on Capitol Hill, urging Republican lawmakers who opposed expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program to rebut the president and change their votes.

But the Wilkersons, who are not particularly political people, have had to weigh their desire to help what they consider a worthy cause against the risk of putting themselves, and their daughter, in the midst of a contentious national debate.

The previous poster child for the program, also called SCHIP, was 12-year-old Graeme Frost of Baltimore, whose family relied on the program after he and his sister received brain injuries in a car accident. After Graeme delivered the Democratic weekly radio address on Sept. 28, the Frost family was pilloried by conservative bloggers, columnists and radio show hosts as exactly the type of despicable folk who didn't deserve public help.

The Frosts lived in a quarter-million-dollar house, they said, with granite counterparts in the kitchen. Graeme attended a tony private school. Their father owned a business.

All those points had mitigating answers. The family bought the house for $55,000 back in 1990, when the neighborhood was sketchy. Graeme was on a scholarship. His father's business had gone out of business, and the family of six made a total of $45,000, well under the limit for the SCHIP program in Maryland.

Parents' fear

But it took a while for the full story to come out, and the Wilkersons feared the same treatment.

"It's very difficult to come forward and present your wallet to the world, basically," Dara Wilkerson, 37, said at the news conference with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., after being asked about the Frosts' experience. "We are lower-middle income. Not proud of that, we definitely strive to further ourself, you know, going back to school, new career, things like that. ...

"That was one of the things that we considered, media scrutiny, but the greater good is being able to ... carry the message that SCHIP is so important to America."

That indeed is how the Wilkersons view their role, but Washington rarely plays on one level. Congress passed the five-year, $35-billion bill to expand the children's insurance program with strong bipartisan support, in hopes of bringing the number of eligible children nationwide to some 10-million, about 4-million more than now. It enjoys strong bipartisan support, especially in the Senate. Bush vetoed it because he says the new version makes eligible too many families who don't need the benefit, at too big of a cost. He and others also worry that expanding eligibility will entice some Americans to drop their private insurance for the government's.

But there's more to it than that. The White House hopes to send the message that it will finally exert more fiscal control, while Democrats believe they've hit on a potent political issue.

It is, of course, tough to campaign against sick kids. Soon after she was born, Bethany's parents fretted about her breathing, and how her little heart beat against her breast. At 3 weeks old, doctors determined she had two holes in her heart, as well as an open duct. She had surgery to correct the defects at All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg two days after Christmas in 2005. One hole remains open, and she may need more surgery later, but she is otherwise healthy.

"If we didn't have the SCHIP, she wouldn't have had the operation," her dad said. "We didn't have $100,000, plus whatever."

The Wilkersons say they make $34,000 a year. Bo Wilkerson works as a manager at Snapper's Grill on St. Pete Beach, which does not provide health insurance. He does maintenance at the restaurant part time, and is a bar-back at the Wharf. The bar used to pay him in drinks; then he quit drinking. Now he does it for Red Bull and $7 an hour, plus tips. The family has lived in a rented studio apartment on Pass-a-Grille for 11 years.

After the vote

Even if the veto is upheld, Bethany -- like most children on SCHIP -- is unlikely to lose her benefits. Funding for the program expires Nov. 16, and Congress is expected either to work with Bush to pass a toned-down version of what it sent the White House, or simply extend the current version.

But advocates say more children should be covered. "There's a million babies out there that don't have it, and they're next in line," said Bo Wilkerson, 44.

Since Monday, the Wilkersons have participated in a conference call with reporters and attended a "vigil" for children's health care with Pelosi outside the Capitol. The Campaign to Save Children's Health Care -- a coalition of US Action, labor unions, MoveOn.org and other groups -- is trying to raise enough money to run a TV ad featuring Bethany after today's vote. MoveOn sent its 3.3-million members a plea for $200,000 to air the ad.

After Wednesday's news conference in Pelosi's conference room, the Wilkersons visited Reps. C.W. Bill Young, R-Indian Shores, who voted for the final SCHIP bill, and Gus Bilirakis, R-Palm Harbor, who voted against it and who says he will vote to uphold the veto.

They also spent a half-hour with Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa, who voted against the final SCHIP bill because, she said, it didn't do enough to make the program available to more children. It also included a cigar tax that cigarmakers in her district opposed. But she told the Wilkersons she plans to vote to override the veto today.

The Wilkersons also told Castor they were upset with at least one attack piece already, a column on the conservative National Review Online that called them irresponsible for having a baby without having health insurance. The column also suggested they had failed as parents by not finding better jobs.

"You know, just -- just ignore that stuff," Castor said. "You can't let it get to you."

"He called us bad parents," Bo Wilkerson said. "I wanted to smack him in his face. I'm not a bad daddy. I'm actually very excellent."

"Just ignore that," Castor said again.

"It just aggravates me ... for somebody who doesn't even know me."

"Don't let it get to you."

Wilkerson laughed. "Too late."

Wes Allison can be reached at allison@sptimes.com or (202) 463-0577.

[Last modified October 17, 2007, 23:52:43]