Most folks think of the AARP as a membership organization that gives older Americans discounts on magazine subscriptions and cellphone plans. In fact, those business lines are secondary to AARP’s real source of income, a lucrative partnership with United Healthcare…
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The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) remains one of the most powerful lobbying arms in the country, claiming to represent the interests of close to 40 million seniors. But it’s worth asking—whose interests are they really protecting, yours or theirs? Though politicians are loath to lob public criticism at the group, ample evidence suggests the AARP may be focused far less on its publicly declared principles and far more on its profits—even at the…
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The AARP recently hosted a forum that included Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar ostensibly to discuss proposals to lower health care costs. The irony was unmissable. AARP — which until the 1990s was an acronym but now, appropriately, stands for nothing — is crusading for a Nancy Pelosi bill that allegedly combats “unfair pricing,” while AARP itself faces serious legal allegations that it is ripping off seniors by raising the health care costs…
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While the Democratic presidential candidates are debating full Medicare for All, giant insurance companies like UnitedHealthcare are advertising to the elderly in an attempt to lure them from Traditional Medicare (TM) to the so-called Medicare Advantage (MA)—a corporate plan that UnitedHealthcare promotes to turn a profit at the expense of enrollees. Almost one third of all elderly over 65 are enrolled in these numerous, complex MA policies the government pays so much for monthly…
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Ten thousand American baby boomers will turn 65 each day for the next 10 years. This is one of the biggest demographic transitions in U.S. history, and the resulting shifts in health-care spending will require intelligent policy. But a significant conflict of interest has led AARP, senior citizens’ strongest lobby, to put their well-being aside.
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Why is the largest consumer advocacy organization sitting on the sidelines as new federal rules make it harder for patients to get the vital medicines they need? That’s the question every senior should be asking AARP, and the organization’s lucrative business interests help shed light on a likely answer.
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From skyrocketing health insurance premiums, massive deductibles, high drug prices and other unexpected out of pocket costs, affordable health care is becoming increasingly out of reach for far too many Iowa patients and families. Add other calamities such as UnitedHealthcare’s recent walkout on hundreds of thousands of Iowa Medicaid recipients and the situation is even more troubling.
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In 1996, the New York Times said the AARP’s credibility would be at stake if it proceeded with efforts to license its name to managed care plans for a fee because “the policies that might be best for the elderly are not always the policies that are best for the bank account of the A.A.R.P.” Undaunted, the AARP charged full speed ahead. Since then, the AARP’s for-profit financial juggernaut, AARP Services, Inc., has earned so many…
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