Hollywood Targeted to Give Health-Care Law a Boost

(AP) Hollywood targeted to give health-care law a boost
By MICHAEL R. BLOOD and SANDY COHEN
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES
The health care overhaul might get a Hollywood rewrite.

The California Endowment, a private foundation that is spending millions to promote President Barack Obama’s signature law, recently provided a $500,000 grant to ensure TV writers and producers have information about the Affordable Care Act that can be stitched into plot lines watched by millions.

The aim is to produce compelling prime-time narratives that encourage Americans to enroll, especially the young and healthy, Hispanics and other key demographic groups needed to make the overhaul a success.

California Republican strategist Jonathan Wilcox says the attempt to engage Hollywood was coming too late to influence views, and he doubted fictionalized TV would play into families’ decisions about health care.