News & Blogs

Jon Decker: AARP’s Electioneering Poses Conflict of Interest

AARP goes to great lengths to maintain its public image as a politically unaffiliated senior advocacy organization. However, a quick peek behind the scenes makes it clear this image is largely a mirage.  For years, the organization nurtured this perception, which helps the group skim by supporting polarizing policy proposals with little to no criticism. It’s time we address the truth about AARP and the conflict of interest that emerges from its false “objectivity.” Seniors…

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Jon Decker: AARP’s Electioneering Poses Conflict of Interest

AARP goes to great lengths to maintain its public image as a politically unaffiliated senior advocacy organization. However, a quick peek behind the scenes makes it clear this image is largely a mirage.  For years, the organization nurtured this perception, which helps the group skim by supporting polarizing policy proposals with little to no criticism. It’s time we address the truth about AARP and the conflict of interest that emerges from its false “objectivity.” Seniors…

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Patricia G. Barnes: Group Urges Congress To Investigate AARP’s Ties To Big Insurance

The AARP pocketed an estimated $6.7 billion tax free since 2007 from the nation’s leading health insurer, UnitedHealth Group, for pitching AARP-branded insurance plans. This is according to a recent report by American Commitment, a right-of-center 501 (c )(3) charitable group that advocates for free markets and lmited government. The organization claims “royalty fees” earned by the AARP’s lucrative business of licensing its brand name to insurance providers and other companies long ago superceded its commitment to advocating…

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American Commitment Releases Newly-Updated Report on AARP’s $1 Billion+ Financial Ties with Big Insurance, Urges Congress to Investigate Conflicts

Report Exposes AARP’s Lucrative Financial Relationship with UnitedHealth, Nation’s Largest Health Insurer Washington, D.C. — January 11, 2023 — American Commitment today released a newly-updated report exposing AARP’s financial relationship with UnitedHealth, the nation’s largest health insurance company. The original research explores AARP’s financial ties to the corporate insurance giant and questions their influence on AARP’s positions and advocacy on healthcare policy matters. The study, “How AARP Puts Profits over Patients—And Principles,” was commissioned by American Commitment…

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Dan Neal: Has UnitedHealthcare seduced the AARP?

Here in Wyoming and across the country, people enrolled in Medicare are engaged in the annual task of assessing their supplemental insurance coverage. Insurance companies anxious to acquire more customers have flooded my mail box with pitches urging me to sign up before the open enrollment period ends Dec. 7. The supplemental plans, known as Medigap, are offered by private insurers to cover some or all of the out-of-pocket costs that Medicare Parts A and…

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Matthew Cunningham-Cook: AARP Is Welcoming the Privatization of Medicare

Despite massive and systemic problems with for-profit Medicare plans denying care to seniors while costing the government more than $7 billion annually in excess fees, the leading advocacy group tasked with protecting older Americans is welcoming the privatization of the national health insurance program — while earning as much as $814 million annually from insurers advertising the plans. The state of affairs lays bare a conflict inside AARP, the major advocacy organization for Americans fifty and older, over…

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Jon Decker: AARP was wrong to back Medicare drug price control. It’ll end up hurting seniors

There’s no way to get around it: the newly enacted Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) marks a terrible blow to American seniors. For the millions of older Americans on Medicare, the future of medical innovation is much dimmer, as will be their access to critical prescription drugs. But AARP – the supposed bastion of senior advocacy – is apparently unfazed. It recently concluded a victory tour, which included an event in Arizona celebrating the bill’s enactment as a historic achievement for seniors. Government price controls…

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WSJ: AARP-Branded Medicare Drug Plan Is Too Costly for Many Retirees, Critics Say

The AARP name has become a marketing juggernaut among baby boomers, with the group’s nearly 38 million members receiving offers for AARP-branded health, life and auto insurance, and discounts on cellphones, travel, car rentals and even pet insurance. One of its most popular branded products is the high-end AARP MedicareRx Preferred plan, insured by UnitedHealth Group Inc., UNH 0.30%increase; green up pointing triangle and it carries the highest premiums among all national stand-alone Medicare drug plans. For many boomer retirees,…

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