WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 17, 2022) – Today, Commitment to Seniors, a project of American Commitment, announces a new Minnesota media campaign designed to shed light on the AARP’s financial ties to UnitedHealthcare (UHC). This effort is a part of Commitment to Seniors’ ongoing seven-figure ad buy “celebrating” AARP’s milestone of receiving more than $1 billion in corporate royalties, which eclipses what the group takes in in membership dues. The announcement comes ahead of today’s virtual press conference by AARP in Minnesota.
The AARP’s support for proposals to implement Medicare prescription drug price “negotiation” would not actually lower seniors’ pharmaceutical costs. Rather, it would weaken healthcare innovation, leading to fewer breakthrough treatments and lifesaving medicines for seniors. The proposal would raid Medicare and enable politicians to direct so-called “savings” not to seniors, but to fund unrelated big government projects.
As our recent ad highlights, AARP has an extensive financial relationship with UHC, having now garnered more than $9,000,000,000 in corporate royalties over the last decade—most of which are from UnitedHealthcare.
“Politicians are advocating draining hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicare prescription drug spending as a ‘pay-for’ to spend on unrelated big government pet projects,” said Jonathan Decker, executive director of American Commitment. “A real seniors group would be outraged, but AARP is cheering it on. It only makes sense when you realize that Democratic price control schemes would potentially benefit big insurers like UnitedHealthcare. Seniors in Minnesota and across the country should demand answers.”
Phil Kerpen, president of American Commitment, said: “AARP in just the last year brought in over $750,000,000 in royalty revenue from health products and services, while regularly advocating for the bottom line of its biggest corporate partner, UnitedHealth. Minnesota seniors—and their elected representatives like Senators Klobuchar and Smith—should be asking: for whom is AARP truly advocating these days?”
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Learn more about Commitment to Seniors by visiting https://commitmenttoseniors.org. Follow Commitment to Seniors on Twitter at @commit2seniors.