Who is AARP anyway?

A couple weeks ago I heard a radio broadcast from a very trusted source on American Family Radio about AARP. In the broadcast I learned several rather troubling things I was unaware of. I made a mental note of it and decided to do some independent research to verify what I heard so that I could share it with you. So here goes. 

Do you believe, as I did, that AARP ® still stands for “American Association of Retired Persons”? Well it doesn’t, not anymore at least. From the broadcast and Wikipedia: The organization was originally named the American Association of Retired Persons, but in 1999, it officially changed its name to “AARP” (pronounced one letter at a time, “ay ay ar pee”), to reflect that its focus was no longer American retirees. AARP ® no longer requires that members be retired, and there are no longer any age restrictions even for a full membership).

I must admit that I felt embarrassed to learn that fact after all these years, especially having written this column as long as I have but I figured if I didn’t know it, probably many of you didn’t either.

The issue here is that AARP ®, while it addresses issues affecting older Americans through lobbying efforts at the state and national governmental level, an activity permitted by its 501(c)(4) status., has really morphed into an insurance marketing group via an exclusive arrangement with United Health and its wholly owned OptumRx pharmacy business. This arrangement allowed AARP to receive $627 million from United Health in 2017.

The troubling part is that these plans are not always fairly priced and optimized for senior consumers because AARP ® receives a 4.95% commission on every plan sold.

Nor does AARP ® always represent the desires of their membership. Case in point being when ObamaCare was being debated, AARP ® membership lobbied them 14-to -1 to oppose it, but they supported it instead with a special carve-out provision to “Keep the their United Health gravy train running. In fact, since the law’s passage, and implementation, the AARP ® has received well over $4 Billion in “Royalties” from United Health”!

But their latest lobbying efforts may be even worse. AARP ® has emerged as one of the most vocal supporters of House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi’s prescription drug care plan. Numerous health experts and even the Congressional Budget Office have reported the bill would likely restrict the availability of life saving drugs and stifle investments in new ones in disease areas such as Alzheimer’s, cancer, and diabetes that are especially important to seniors. It would do this by removing incentives for R&D spending by pharmaceutical companies.

After reading this you might be interested in alternatives to AARP ®. Here are six to consider:

•American Seniors Association,

www.Americanseniors.org 

•Association of Mature American Citizens, www.AMAC.us 

•Christ Above Politics ChristAbovePolitics.com 

•National Association of Conservative Seniors, www.NAOCS.us

•The Seniors Coalition, www.Senior.org 

•60 Plus Association, www.60plus.org.

I’m for full disclosure. How about you?

Thanks for reading All About Seniors…..see you next week!