News & Blogs

Phil Kerpen: UNMASKING UNITEDHEALTH FRONT GROUP AARP

For years the major health care policy debates in Washington and state capitals have been distorted by the fact that one of America’s best known and trusted advocacy organizations, AARP, has functioned largely as a lobbying and PR front for the country’s biggest health insurer, UnitedHealth.  Yet elected officials continue to see and hear their advocacy messages as representing millions of seniors – who are famously reliable voters – with a serious corrosive impact on…

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AARP says its relationship with members not one of “trust or confidence”

A judge in Washington, DC recently dismissed a class action lawsuit against the AARP brought by seniors who felt the organization was not acting in their best interests. However, the arguments that AARP made to obtain that dismissal will likely shock its members. AARP has been in and out of the courtroom for years defending their controversial arrangement with the nation’s largest health insurance corporation, UnitedHealth. These class action lawsuits have been brought by Medicare…

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Once Supporters of Class Action Lawsuits, AARP Finds Itself on the Other Side of the Courtroom

Just a couple short years ago, AARP was voicing its full-throated support for class action lawsuits against institutions who engage in unfair or unethical practices. Now, class action lawsuits filed across at least four states have the AARP changing its tune. “AARP supports the availability of a full range of enforcement tools, including the right to class action litigation to prevent harm to the financial security of older people posed by unfair and illegal practices,” said AARP Director of Financial Security…

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AARP: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

AARP (formerly the American Association of Retired Persons, but now officially standing for nothing) frequently touts itself as a consumer-focused organization. From a fraud watch helpline, to a podcast on issues facing seniors, to countless articles on how to protect yourself from scams, AARP goes to great lengths to portray itself as an organization vigilantly advocating for seniors’ well-being. But as it turns out; AARP’s coffers have been quietly filled each year by hundreds of millions of…

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Mass Marion: A bipartisan opportunity to cut drug prices

According to recent polls, Americans rank health care as their most important policy issue. President Trump reflected this concern in his State of the Union address, saying his “next major priority” is “to lower the cost of health care and prescription drugs — and to protect patients with pre-existing conditions.” A new rule introduced last week by the Department of Health and Human Services would strike at the root of rising prescription drug costs that…

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Rachel Bovard: AARP’s Corrupt Business Model Puts Seniors Last

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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Jon Decker and Phil Kerpen: AARP is just a for-profit insurance company

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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Ralph Nader: Wake Up AARP! A Message to Seniors: Medicare “Disadvantage” Is a Corporate Trap

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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