Good news! The long running very contentious fight between the Motion Picture and TV Fund, and the patients who live in their long term care facility, is over. The MPTV Fund has caved in and found an outside operator which will run the hospital after two years of a public bruising war. In the time since this started, the number of patients has been reduced from about 100 to 37. But patients and family members stood their ground, since their contract promised them lifelong care.
The families started a website–www.savingthelivesofourown.org, and protested quite publicly. One person who must be very relieved that a compromise has been reached is Jeffrey Katzenberg. The Dreamworks Animation chief hosts the twice yearly celebrity benefits for the Fund–the next one is Saturday night at the Beverly Hills Hotel. For the last two years protesters have waved placards as A list movie stars arrived to mix, mingle, and get expensive gift bags. Katzenberg, who’s very philanthropic, was suddenly in the middle of this embarrassing situation.
So congrats to the families and patients and the people who hung in there! Let this be a lesson to greedy nursing homes and assisted living residences everywhere. Long term medical care is going to be a growing issue as people live longer.
