Check out this Hollywood-inspired look at the VA. It ran over the weekend in the Manchester Union Leader. (Yes, New Hampshire -- for all the obvious reasons).
If you like Medicare, you'll love Moviecare
Imagine turning 65 and finding a letter tucked in your mailbox offering unlimited movie tickets for just $25 a month. You read through the fine print, and amazingly, the offer isn't a scam. It's a new federal program called "MovieCare."
Not a bad deal. It's estimated that seniors spend between five and six percent of their income on entertainment, and this new program -- funded by the government -- would cover most of those expenses.
In some ways, Medicare Part D provides the same service, albeit for goods more important than movie tickets. Seniors used to spend about 3.2 percent of their total income on drugs. Thanks to Part D, those expenses have plummeted, and 20 million seniors who previously lacked prescription drug coverage now have it.
Not surprisingly, more than eight in ten beneficiaries are pleased with the drug benefit. If MovieCare were modeled on the Medicare drug benefit, more seniors than ever before would be able to go to the movies, the vast majority of movies would be available, and beneficiaries would likely enjoy the program as much as they enjoy Part D.
But before long, it's also likely that some congressional lawmakers would decide that MovieCare -- despite its enormous popularity -- was costing taxpayers too much because of heartless movie studio bosses.
We'd see speeches vilifying studio moguls and their "massive" profits. We'd see breathless reports of seniors who went to to see Flags of Our Fathers on a Friday night but ended up trapped in a showing of Man of the Year -- the horror!
Here's a link to the rest of the screenplay:
Download file
And we'll see you at the movies.
If you like Medicare, you'll love Moviecare
Imagine turning 65 and finding a letter tucked in your mailbox offering unlimited movie tickets for just $25 a month. You read through the fine print, and amazingly, the offer isn't a scam. It's a new federal program called "MovieCare."
Not a bad deal. It's estimated that seniors spend between five and six percent of their income on entertainment, and this new program -- funded by the government -- would cover most of those expenses.
In some ways, Medicare Part D provides the same service, albeit for goods more important than movie tickets. Seniors used to spend about 3.2 percent of their total income on drugs. Thanks to Part D, those expenses have plummeted, and 20 million seniors who previously lacked prescription drug coverage now have it.
Not surprisingly, more than eight in ten beneficiaries are pleased with the drug benefit. If MovieCare were modeled on the Medicare drug benefit, more seniors than ever before would be able to go to the movies, the vast majority of movies would be available, and beneficiaries would likely enjoy the program as much as they enjoy Part D.
But before long, it's also likely that some congressional lawmakers would decide that MovieCare -- despite its enormous popularity -- was costing taxpayers too much because of heartless movie studio bosses.
We'd see speeches vilifying studio moguls and their "massive" profits. We'd see breathless reports of seniors who went to to see Flags of Our Fathers on a Friday night but ended up trapped in a showing of Man of the Year -- the horror!
Here's a link to the rest of the screenplay:
Download file
And we'll see you at the movies.
