George Clooney is enlisting friends Matt Damon and Brad Pitt to try to save a nursing home in Hollywood.  The nursing home is the Motion Picture and Television Fund nursing home, which cares for people who worked in film and television.  I don’t know all the ins and outs of the debate, but it looks like the nursing home, as many are in the U.S., is losing huge amounts of money, as Medicaid reimbursement continually gets cut.  This same drama plays out – minus the Hollywood stars – in communities across the U.S., underscoring the need to transform how we pay for long-term care in the U.S.

The stars and others seeking to save the nursing home have created an only-in-Hollywood campaign complete with dramatic video at www.savingthelivesofourown.org.  It would be great to have George, Matt, Brad and the other stars to bring their advocacy nationally and shine the spotlight in America that we need to build the infrastructure and financing system to support America’s elders with dignity. 

As U.S. Health Secretary Kathy Sebelius looks how to market the CLASS Act, America’s new public long-term care insurance plan, perhaps these stars can come on board as they’ve got long-term care on their minds.