Six have died since closure announced (Hollywood Scum falsely blame Medicaid)

the wrap ^ | Today | Andrew Gumbel

[jessduntno]

February 08, 2009, 7:50PM PST MOVIES Part I: MPTF residents despondent; six have died since closure announced

Tax returns, audits contradict stated reasons for hospital shuttering

Mary Stellar, pictured here with her son Richard, is a resident of the MPTF long-term care facility; in earlier years, she worked as an assistant to Cubby Broccoli, the James Bond producer.

Hanging out at the Spirit Awards in Santa Monica The cream of the independent film world gathered on the beach on Saturday to celebrate the best of indie film in 2008 at the Spirit Awards. TheWrap was there. Photos by Sharon Waxman. See also her blog about the day.

By Andrew Gumbel PART ONE OF TWO PARTS

When the Motion Picture & Television Fund announced last month that it was shuttering the long-term care facility and hospital at its Woodland Hills retirement home – effectively ending the comprehensive care it once provided to aging actors, studio employees and film technicians -- it painted a dire picture of itself as a charitable organization on the brink of financial ruin.

The foundation established by Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin 87 years ago said it was losing $10 million a year because of ever-diminishing Medicaid and Medi-Cal reimbursements to its elderly residents, and risked depleting its endowment completely within a few years if it did not act immediately to stanch the flow of red ink.

There is, however, a major problem with that explanation: it does not appear to be entirely true.

The numbers being bandied about by Jeffrey Katzenberg, the MPTF’s chief fundraiser, and other officials do not square with the organization’s own official accounting numbers and tax returns.

[jessduntno]

The mnore you learn the scummier it gets - not only do the Hollywood weasels turnn their backs on the people that made them...they blame it on a failrue of the AMERICAN medicaid system...degenerate dirtbags...

Come on.....loosing 10 million a year??? RIGHT.....you bring in more than that to keep the Fund going........Got to keep the stock accounts going right Frank Guarrea !!!!

http://www.mptvfund.org/cm/Foundation/Events/The%20Night%20Before/Home.h...

[FormerACLUmember]

The very same Hollywood vermin who gave an Oscar to the despicable Sicko movie, and would involutarily impose Sicko type care on all of us.

Hollywood cheated and murdered aged, frail actors. Ronald Reagan would have NEVER permitted this evil and cruelty, when he was Predident of the Screen Actors Guild (and the only union head ever to become President of the US).

[skipper18]

It was a sweetheart deal in the first place. A bunch of people who never had medical insurance and never made much money because they never worked much getting gold star freebie-care ...

Are we really bitching about it ending, on a conservative website?

Or is Newsweek right? Because this is socalism in action that you’re standing up for.

[jessduntno]

“Or is Newsweek right? Because this is socalism in action that you’re standing up for. Are we really bitching about it ending, on a conservative website?”

It would be good for you to know what you are talking about before spouting such silliness. These were not people who were getting a “sweetheart deal”...it was in a compenstaion package put there by a VERY conservative Hollywood, many years ago...these were, in most cases, people who worked hard and are now being screwed by the liberals and billionaires they helped to create...don’t know much about Hollywood’s history, do you? I don’t know when conservatism became so ruthless that it can’t recognize the difference between broken promises and “socialism” but you are DEEPLY misguided in your mad-dog reaction to this particular situation...

[hinckley buzzard]

IDK the details here but there is no reason that the closing of this facility should have a mortal impact on anyone. Nursing homes open and close all the time and when one closes they must see to providing continuity of care by placing their residents elsewhere. Most all of them are on Medicare and Medicaid and while longterm care facilities have pretty thin profit margins, the well-managed ones do all right.

[jessduntno]

“the well-managed ones do all right.”

That, of course, is the point...you are not paying attention...knee jerk conservatism is just as dangerous as knee jerk liberalism...

The numbers being bandied about by Jeffrey Katzenberg, the MPTF’s chief fundraiser, and other officials do not square with the organization’s own official accounting numbers and tax returns.

Those documents –

http://www.scribd.com/doc/11935640/THEWRAPCOM-Return-of-Organization-Exempt-from-Income-Tax-2006

the most recent filed with the Internal Revenue Service in November 2008 – show no $10 million losses, or any losses at all. The fund’s assets – described in one press release as “draining… at an alarming rate” – actually increased in 2006 and 2007, the last year for which figures are available.

What part of the liberal disease of throwing the elderly overboard do you not get?

[PghBaldy]

People shuld protest at the Oscars. That’s where to do it. This would probably be the first time a protest there made any sense. Reminds me of how Michael Moore treats his workers.