News & Blogs

James Martin: “It’s Time to Defund the AARP”

Why is the lavishly-funded, tax-exempt, Obamacare-promoting AARP receiving over $1 billion in taxpayer funds? AARP, perhaps the single greatest political obstacle to reforming the entitlement programs that will someday leave our children bankrupt and destitute, is the Scrooge McDuck of tax-exempt organizations, which is swimming in cash.

KY Cabinet for Health and Family Services: Medicaid Pharmacy Pricing: Opening the Black Box

As of October 2018, nearly 73 million Americans were enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), 50.7% of which were children. In Kentucky, there were over 1.2 million Medicaid/CHIP enrollees as of October 2018—nearly one fourth of the state’s population.

Age Discrimination in Employment: U.S. House Takes A Step Toward Legal Equality For Older Workers

A few years ago, I wrote about my naïve effort to engage the AARP, Inc. in the substantive work of combating a half-century of second-class citizenship of older workers under U.S. law. (They declined.) So what has the AARP, the self-described advocate for Americans aged 50+, been doing instead?

Joseph Walker and Christopher Weaver: The $9 Billion Upcharge: How Insurers Kept Extra Cash From Medicare

Each June, health insurers send the government detailed cost forecasts for providing prescription-drug benefits to more than 40 million people on Medicare. No one expects the estimates to be spot on. After all, it is a tall order to predict the exact drug spending for the following year of the thousands of members in each plan.

AARP Tax Filings: 2018

Morning Edition: States Question Costs Of Middlemen That Manage Medicaid Drug Benefits

Several states are questioning the cost of using pharmacy middlemen to manage their prescription drug programs in a movement that could shake up the complex system that manages how pharmaceuticals are priced and paid for. The debate is playing out this week in an Ohio courtroom, as the state fights to release a report detailing what it paid two middlemen, CVS Health and Optum, to manage its Medicaid program’s prescription drug plans.

Mike Stankiewicz: UnitedHealth, AARP sued for diverting $400M a year to illegal rebates

The country’s largest Medigap insurer and an interest group for the elderly have been hit with a lawsuit accusing them of illegally diverting hundreds of millions of dollars a year. A class action lawsuit (PDF) was filed on Wednesday on behalf of “a nationwide class of Medicare-eligible individuals” who claim the insurer and AARP are diverting part of their Medigap payments to fund an illegal “rebating scheme.”

Alan Simpson: AARP is a ‘monstrous organization’ that blocks changes needed to save Social Security

The only way to stop the cycle of overspending in Washington and then fighting over raising the debt ceiling is to reform entitlements, anti-debt crusader Alan Simpson told CNBC on Tuesday. “Do something with the solvency of Social Security, which is the biggest elephant in all the rooms,” said Simpson, retired U.S. senator from Wyoming and GOP co-chair of former President Barack Obama’s bipartisan debt commission.