- Founded in 1958 for aged 50 and older Americans, AARP
call itself "a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization (dedicated
to) improv(ing) the quality of their lives," even though from inception
it sold insurance to earn royalties - now to its 40 million members in
all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin
Islands while claiming a mandate to:
-
- -- deliver "value to members through information,
advocacy and service;"
-
- -- work "tirelessly to fulfill its vision: a society
in which everyone ages with dignity and purpose, and in which AARP helps
people fulfill their goals and dreams;" and
-
- -- speak "with one voice - united by a common motto:
'To serve, not be served."
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- Today it's branches include:
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- -- AARP Foundation focusing on "education....service,
(and) legal advocacy efforts;"
-
- -- AARP Services, providing "marketplace access
to services that people need and want" related to "health and
financial products, travel and leisure offerings, and life event services;"
-
- -- AARP Financial, Inc. providing "financial advice
and education, and managed AARP-endorsed financial and insurance products,"
that include health care and other insurance as well as equity, bond and
money market mutual funds sold to members;
-
- -- AARP Global Network of "likeminded, nonpartisan,
national organizations (in five countries) working to meet the needs of
older adults around the world;" and
-
- -- NRTA: AARP's Educator Community (formerly the National
Retired Teachers Association) comprised mainly of "educators and school
personnel dedicated to educational opportunities, advocacy, and service."
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- On March 9, 2009, Roll Call's Katie Kindelan's article
titled, "Defining a Future at AARP" described the organization
as "perhaps the nation's most powerful and well-funded advocacy"
group, both inside and beyond the Beltway, impressively headquartered in
a 10-story, 500,000 foot DC building.
-
- Nonprofit in name only, "AARP is the equivalent
of a Fortune 500 company, employing a staff of 2,419 employees, (incurring)
$1.16 billion in operating expenses and overseeing annual revenues (well
above) $1 billion," around 60% of which comes from so-called Medigap
supplemental insurance sales.
-
- According to Physicians for a National Health Program
(PNHP), "Some of these products are total rip offs," so bad,
in fact, that AARP was forced to withdraw its Essential Health Insurance
Plan and Essential Plus Health Insurance Plan, developed by United Health
Group and sold to 44,000 of its members.
-
- PNHP calls AARP "part of the problem and not part
of the solution. It is nothing but an insurance (and financial) broker
disguised as an advocacy group - and they will never take on the health
insurance industry. (It) represent(s) the insurance industry (and its own
self-interest) rather than (its members and) the public welfare in discussions
about health reform."
-
- As a result, it's largely profit-driven offering 17 types
of insurance reaping hundreds of millions annually in royalties. Millions
more from selling drugs; other products and services including mutual funds;
plus federal subsidies exceeding $80 million annually; and annual membership
dues of $16 per year, $43 for three years, or $63 for five x 40 million
members.
-
- It's also active on Capitol Hill with a 50-person staff
and a 2008 $28 million lobbying budget, much like major corporations and
for the same purpose - profits at the expense of member interests, unaware
how they're ill-served by an organization claiming to be their advocate.
-
- AARP's Role in Enacting the Controversial Medicare Prescription
Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act (MMA) of 2003 - the So-Called Part
D
-
- Costing tens of billions annually, passage came only
after initially being defeated, followed by a three hour all-night suspending
of proceedings to exert pressure and offer bribes because passage assured
PhRMA big profits at the expense of seniors extorted top dollar for prescription
drugs, not the substantial savings government-negotiated prices would have
delivered. Yet AARP was one of its staunchest advocates.
-
- In an email later revealed, the organization's associate
executive policy director, Chris Hansen (a former aerospace lobbyist),
assured Bush deputy assistant to the president, Barry Jackson, that he
was on board with only minor issues to resolve. He said:
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- "We know that there may be details that we will
message differently but we are together on the big goal."
-
- The deal was struck, and in succeeding weeks, AARP leaders
worked closely with House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Senate Majority Leader
Bill Frist to draft a final bill. On November 22, 2003 the House passed
it. The Senate followed three days later, and on December 8, it became
law after George Bush signed it as "an important step toward fulfilling
a longstanding promise to older and disabled Americans" who later
learned they were swindled by the administration, Congress, and their premiere
advocate that betrayed them for profits, its ties to PhRMA, and greater
political influence in Washington.
-
- At the time, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich explained
that AARP's CEO, Bill Novelli, had "a long history of supporting individual
responsibility in health care and doesn't want seniors dependent on government
handouts." Novelli, in fact, invited Gingrich to join an advisory
panel to discuss AARP future strategies, including insurance and other
products and services it might sell. He also endorsed Gingrich's book,
"Saving Lives and Saving Money" by writing in its forward:
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- "Gingrich's (marketplace medicine) ideas are influencing
how we at AARP are thinking about our national role" in the health
care debate. Whether or not "one agrees (with his) policies, the book
has interesting and important ideas about transforming the American health
care system" to assure it remains a private for-profit system, not
one run by Washington.
-
- Novelli also expressed concern about "how (Medicare)
is financed and operated," the program AARP opposed in the 1960s,
after which it supported the major 1988 Medicare Catastrophic Coverage
Act expansion, aligned with the Republican-controlled Congress in 1995
on health issues, backed the 1997 Medicare Reform Act that let recipients
choose between private health insurance plans, and was comfortable with
a free-market approach after Novelli became CEO in June 2001.
-
- His background foretold his advocacy. His November Group
initiative for Richard Nixon helped devise attack ads against George McGovern
in 1972. In the 1980s, his Porter-Novelli PR firm helped the drug industry.
When he left in 1990, his clients included Bristol-Myers, Ciba-Geigy, Hoffman-La
Roche, SmithKline Beecham, and the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association.
-
- As AARP CEO, Novelli began centralizing control at the
top, away from greater grassroots input attuned to local needs and interests.
He also hired Republican-leaning staff, including former Boeing executive
Chris Hansen as chief lobbyist, who along with Novelli and Mike Naylor
(a former John Deere and AlliedSignal executive) orchestrated AARP's position
on Medicare Part D. They then worked closely with Republican leaders to
pass it.
-
- According to advocates for universal single-payer coverage
and others, passage of the 2003 law potentially marked the beginning of
the end for publicly-financed Medicare and clouded the future of employer-provided
coverage. AARP played a crucial role, much like today in the debate over
health care reform. It's siding with free-market ideologues destroys its
credibility as an advocate for seniors.
-
- AARP's Support for Obamacare
-
- Its initiative Health Action Now calls "this crucial
moment (the) opportunity of a lifetime to fix our broken health care system.
President Obama has promised health reform before the end of the year but
we need to make sure that Congress follows through."
-
- It asks individuals to email "decision makers"
about the the health care crisis and concludes:
-
- "America needs you to take action to ensure that
everyone has a choice of health care they can afford. I urge you to commit
to working on a bipartisan basis to pass legislation that will provide
all Americans with affordable health care choices and strengthen Medicare
and improve long-term care services."
-
- Based on other public and internal messages, it subtly
endorses hundreds of billions of Medicare cuts over the next decade as
a first step toward ending Washington's responsibility entirely by shifting
the obligation to states that, in turn, will force their residents to bear
the burden through higher taxes, on their own, or for those who can't afford
it, get no coverage when they most need it. That's Obamacare's promise,
the one AARP endorses with thousands of its members dropping their memberships
from an organization mindless of their interests.
-
- On its Health Action Now web site, AARP headlines "Myths
vs. Facts (saying) Don't Let the Myths About Health Care Reform Scare You,"
then follows with misinformation and outright distortion of the facts by
claiming:
-
- -- Obamacare won't ration care;
-
- Fact check:
-
- -- proposals call for hundreds of billions in cuts over
ten years with near certain greater amounts to follow;
-
- -- billions in waste will be eliminated;
-
- Fact check:
-
- -- the above cuts will eliminate essential services,
thus assuring less care, not more;
-
- -- lower drug prices;
-
- Fact check:
-
- -- no mandate exists to cut them, just a non-binding
promise on existing products and none whatever on new ones;
-
- -- "the so-called 'public plan' option (will) give
American consumers choice if they can't find affordable, quality coverage
in the private insurance market;
-
- Fact check:
-
- -- most people won't qualify for a public option, and
the one discussed will provide fig leaf cover for a weak and ineffective
plan, not high-quality care for its recipients;
-
- -- Obamacare guarantees "all Americans a choice
of health care plans they can afford;"
-
- Fact check:
-
- -- choices will offer poor options, not quality care;
-
- -- reform plans "will NOT give the government the
power to make life or death decisions for anyone regardless of their age;"
-
- Fact check:
-
- -- hundreds of billions in Medicare cuts and restricted
expensive treatments will do it for them;
-
- -- "Health care reform will help ensure doctors
are paid fairly so they will continue to treat Medicare patients;"
- Fact check:
-
- -- doctors already are unpaid and $200 billion in new
cuts are proposed;
-
- -- "None of the health care reform proposals being
considered by Congress would cut Medicare benefits or increase your out-of-pocket
costs for Medicare services;"
-
- Fact check:
-
- -- Obamacare assures both;
-
- -- "Health care reform will reduce costly, preventable
hospital readmissions, saving patients and Medicare money;"
-
- Fact check:
-
- -- less care assures more illness, not less, and higher
costs to be borne by recipients;
-
- -- "Rather than weaken Medicare, health care reform
will strengthen the financial status of the Medicare program;"
-
- Fact check:
-
- -- proposed cuts, along with new ones, will weaken and
eventually destroy Medicare as well as other social safety net protections
because Washington prioritizes banker bailouts, other corporate subsidies,
trillion dollar defense budgets, militarizing America, and servicing growing
hundreds of billions in debt obligations;
-
- -- "The President and Congress have committed to
producing legislation that will be paid for so it won't saddle our children
and grandchildren with debt;"
-
- Fact check:
-
- -- growing debt obligations place a lifetime burden on
future generations to pay for them; and
-
- -- "If we do nothing to fix health care, families
with Medicare or employer-based health coverage will likely see their premiums
nearly double in the next seven years;"
-
- Fact check:
-
- -- private insurers are assured unrestricted freedom
to raise rates and will take full advantage as they've always done.
-
- Nowhere under "Myths vs. Facts" does AARP suggest
the only real reform solution that's off the table and undiscussed by the
administration, Congress, the major media, or by organization officials
as a fundamental human right - universal single-payer coverage assuring
everyone in, nobody out. Instead, Washington, in cahoots with powerful
providers and AARP, highjacked the process for greater future profits by
charging more, providing less, making a dysfunctional system worse, and
cheating growing millions with promises they know are hollow.
-
- It's become traditional at AARP, cashing in at members'
expense after advocating to "improve the quality of their lives."
Will more dropouts follow over concerns about its betrayal? Very likely
as Washington steamrolls toward an end of year resolution that will erode
health care coverage for most Americans and deny it entirely to millions
under the mantle of reform and AARP's endorsement. It's tradition continues.
-
- Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the Centre
for Research on Globalization. He lives in Chicago and can be reached at
<mailto:lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net>lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
-
- Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and
listen to The Global Research News Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Monday
- Friday at 10AM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions with distinguished
guests on world and national issues. All programs are archived for easy
listening.
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