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AARP Doesn't Take Sides in Partisan Politics

By U.S. News Staff

February 15, 2011 RSS Feed Print
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Ron Bonjean is certainly right that our country needs to break from the status quo in Washington and work together on solutions that help all Americans. So it's disappointing that he repeats some of the same divisive and misleading attacks that have created such a corrosive political atmosphere in the first place ["Ruling Healthcare Law Unconstitutional Is New Sputnik Moment," February 1].

Contrary to Mr. Bonjean's assertion, AARP has always leveraged the advocacy power of our members and volunteers on behalf of the interests of older Americans—nothing else. That's a big reason why over the years AARP has been attacked by both sides of the aisle for standing up for older Americans rather than siding with either political party.

It's hard to tell what Mr. Bonjean means by his false charge of "exemptions" when he doesn't even try to back it up with any facts. We'll assume he's rehashing the usual myth that AARP is an insurance company. To be clear, AARP is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization with a membership. While there are insurance products that carry the AARP name, they are underwritten by insurers such as Delta Dental, UnitedHealth Group, and Aetna and others—not AARP. We work to ensure those products meet our standards and provide value to our members.

His attack of being too close to one party sounds a lot like the ones used by Democrats who didn't like our work with the Bush administration (Mr. Bonjean's employer at the time) to enact a new prescription drug benefit in Medicare that older Americans desperately needed.

Mr. Bonjean's post is either a sign of confusion or opportunism. Either way, if he truly cares about our nation's future—and not just politics—we hope he'll abandon the divisive rhetoric that suffocates honest, meaningful debate among people on both sides of the aisle who want to move our country forward.

Jim Dau
Director of Media Relations
AARP

Tags:
AARP,
Democratic Party,
healthcare reform

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"Hmmm: Is the AARP getting “kickbacks” from Obamacare?"

By Michelle Malkin September 22, 2009

"AARP members who are still wondering why their leaders in Washington want to sell them out on Obamacare, pay attention."

"The GOP has uncovered one very lucrative possibility: Kickbacks."

"Here’s the deal":

"This week the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced it was investigating Humana for providing “misleading” information regarding the Administration’s proposed cuts to Medicare Advantage policies-and prohibited other Medicare Advantage plans from providing similar information on how Democrat health “reform” could take away their current coverage."

"Yet the Administration’s edict prohibiting plans from communicating with their beneficiaries failed to include AARP, which sponsors a Medicare Advantage plan but has been a prime advocate of Democrats’ government takeover of health care-quite possibly because AARP has been supporting a health care overhaul from which it stands to gain overall handsomely. Even as AARP advocates for cutting Medicare Advantage plans by more than $150 billion, an analysis of the organization’s operations reveals that it stands to receive tens of millions of dollars at the expense of seniors’ medical care-with Democrats’ full approval":

* "The Congressional Budget Office has previously estimated that the cuts to Medicare Advantage plans proposed in Democrats’ government takeover of health care (H.R. 3200) would cause millions of seniors to lose their current plan and enroll in government-run Medicare."

Bill Hedges of MO 3:10AM February 16, 2011

* "Because the government-run Medicare benefit is less generous than most private health plans, the * "A review of its financial statements finds that in 2008, AARP received more than half a billion dollars in revenue from selling products like Medigap supplemental insurance policies-$652.7 million in direct “royalties and fees,” and an increase of more than 31 percent from the $497.6 million in similar revenue AARP generated in 2007."

* "Royalty revenues now comprise more than half-60.3 percent-of all AARP revenues; a Bloomberg news analysis published in December found that in 1999, royalties comprised only 11 percent of the organization’s total revenues."

* "The Bloomberg article-which highlighted what one observer called AARP’s “dirty little secret”-profiled seniors who felt betrayed after paying hundreds of dollars above market price for AARP-branded coverage. One noted that “AARP has great buying power, and people should be able to get the best deal….This is unconscionable, what AARP has allowed to happen.” Another disillusioned senior wrote to the organization’s leadership asking whether AARP had a “‘special relationship’ with [insurance carriers] by which it receives commissions, incentives, rebates, or dare I say ‘kickbacks?’”-and when he arrived at AARP headquarters for a tour, was promptly escorted out of the marble-covered atrium."

* "While H.R. 3200 would place strict price controls on Medicare Advantage plans-requiring them to pay out 85 percent of premium revenues in medical claims-Medigap policies face a far less strict 65 percent requirement. In other words, under the Democrat bill, seniors could pay as much as 20 cents more out of every premium dollar to fund “kickbacks” to AARP-sponsored Medigap plans than Medicare Advantage plans."

"The higher prices charged by AARP plans, and the organization’s increasing dependence upon revenue from “royalties,” provide tangible evidence why AARP would support cuts to Medicare Advantage that would likely increase their “kickbacks” from MEDICAP PLANS."

"A Hill source summed it up for me this way: “AARP has endorsed a huge reduction in funding of Medicare Advantage, which touches over 10 million middle-lower income seniors. If Medicare Advantage funding is reduced, and seniors are forced out of the program, they become potential buyers of the heavily-promoted and very profitable Medicare Supplement program sponsored by AARP (MediGap is 70% of AARP’s annual income). Medicare Supplement is a huge source of revenue to AARP."

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/09/22/hmmm-is-the-aarp-getting-kickbacks-from-obamacare/

And AARP lost a lot of members and me as future member. I remember their part in obamacare.

Bill Hedges of MO 3:04AM February 16, 2011

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