WaPo's New Worry for Elderly: No More TV Come Next February

It's a looming crisis for the country's aged, worthy of front-page coverage in today's Washington Post.

Is it the classic pay the heating bill or buy groceries quandary? No. The media-hyped dilemma of whether to buying gasoline or fill prescriptions? Good guess, but no. It's, wait for it, millions of elderly people with equally elderly TV sets facing a boob tube-less doomsday come next February!

I know what you're thinking. "Isn't there a government handout in the works so that people can get buy digital converters for their analog sets?"

How heartless of you! Post staffer Kim Hart explains why this program is just not enough.:

A $1.5 billion federal program has been set up to provide $40 coupons to help pay for the converter boxes, which cost $60 to $120 at stores such as Best Buy and Wal-Mart. But 73 percent of older consumers don't know about the program, according to a Consumers Union survey of 1,013 people. And some living in larger communities or group homes many not be eligible because of the program's limit of two vouchers per household.

The District of Columbia Health Care Association, which oversees 16 nursing homes, is starting to evaluate the options for residents, many of whom use older TV sets in their rooms. Veronica Damesyn Sharp, the association's executive director, said some residents are too frail to go to the common room to watch the buildings' main TVs, which are hooked up to cable. And many cannot afford to buy a new TV or a converter box, let alone get cable service.

Sharp says she's worried some residents may not qualify for a coupon because they live at the same address. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the agency within the Commerce Department administering the coupon program, requested approval to change the eligibility rules, but the process could take up to three months.

Still not convinced? The folks at the Post knew you'd be heartless and cruel, so they threw in the requisite picture of a worried-looking old guy (top right of post).

Caption: Sean Venable, who lives at St. Mary's Court in D.C., is worried his coupon for a TV converter box might expire before St. Mary's decides whether to hook up cable for residents.

Photo credit: Ricky Carioti/Washington Post.