Pitch script example

Pitch Script

Senior citizens in Arkansas must move to Colorado, before it’s too late.

Arkansas' senior citizens want to grow old in their homes, to remain an active part of society and stay interconnected with their community. None desire to languish in a nursing home. Yet only one in nine state tax dollars are invested in home and community support. The remaining eight sustain nursing homes, where every fifth resident could have stayed at home with some assistance. But nursing homes are like Hotel California; once you’re in, you never leave. And the competition for in-home care is fierce, with only one home health aid per ten senior citizens.

John has a fall and fractures his hip. An ambulance picks him up and takes him to the hospital. A week recuperating and he’s restless to get home. John needs assistance while his hip repairs, and the doctor says it’ll take at least four months before he’s well enough to live by himself. He requests in-home care, but his eyes boggle when he sees the price. He knows he’s got to get out of the hospital-the bills are piling up-but he can’t afford home assistance and doesn’t have nearby family. Anxious and pressured, he checks in to a nursing home miles from his community.

In six weeks John’s able to walk around. It should have been four, but the physical therapist could only see him twice a week. he’s not quite ready to live on his own, but John’s hopeful he’ll be home soon. Then he catches a nasty cough that passes through the nursing facility which sets his recovery back two weeks. Month three passes and still John hasn’t gone home. At the end of month four, John’s stamina has run out and he resigns himself to the inevitability of the nursing home.

Is this every John’s future? What if John lived in Colorado, a state that invests one of every two dollars in home and community support, and where there is one home health aid per three senior citizens. How would his story sound then?

John breaks his hip and is rushed to the hospital. Within a week, John is transferred to a nearby short-term care facility. An occupational therapist works five days a week with John until he regains some of his independence, but he’ll still need help for the next three months. He discovers a service twenty minutes from his house that will send an assistant every day to help him with his daily tasks. It’s less than he expected! By month three John’s regained most of his mobility and cuts his assistance to two hours a day. When month four comes around, John’s walking down to the corner bakery for an almond croissant just like he always has.

John’s dilemma may be yours someday. It will take Arkansas an estimated 36 years to shift funding to the national average, and 51 to hit Colorado’s standard; can you wait that long?

2013 stats

Arkansas 6 billion on Medicaid 3 million population $2,000 per

person

Colorado 8 billion on Medicaid 5.3 million population $1,500 per

person

Washington 11 billion on Medicaid 7 million population $1,571 per

person

Pitch Notes

21% of nursing home residents have low-care needs in Indiana.

Only 13.6% of funds goes to in-home support; the rest goes to nursing homes; despite an overwhelming desire for home care.

At the current rate, it will take 36 years for Indiana to move into the median in terms of spending, and another 51 before it gets to the top’s level of support. Can you wait x years?

“Although nearly half of the states (24) have significantly increased the number of home health and personal care aides, at the current national rate of change it would take 34 years for the average of the bottom 5 states (11 aides per 100 adults with disabilities) to reach the level of the median state today (19 aides per 100), and another 34 years for the median state to reach the level of the average of top 5 states (33 aides per 100).”

“At the current national rate of change, it would take 36 years for the average of the bottom 5 states (17 percent toward home- and community-based services) to reach the level of the median state today (33 percent), and another 51 years for the median state to reach the level of the average of the top 5 states (64 percent).”