The AARP is out with an interesting new advertising campaign. Actually, it’s an old AARP warning about threats to Social Security, but with a curious new twist. AARP is now acknowledging what recent polling of older Americans has shown: that many voters 55 and older don’t agree with many of the organization’s positions or trust it on many levels due to its corporate financial relationships. AARP now wants this crucial voting bloc’s trust back when it comes to Social Security, but what is their true motivation?
First, let’s provide some context. Despite its non-profit tax status, the AARP is a massive commercially funded enterprise that earned over $2 billion in revenue in 2021. More interesting, over half of those revenues – more than $1 billion – came from corporate royalties – three times more than AARP members pay in dues. And most of that was from a single company – the massive health insurance and pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) corporation UnitedHealth. In fact, it is estimated that AARP has been paid more than $6 billion over the last decade from its financial partnership with that company alone.