An AARP Endorsement

[Navy1960]

“AARP is proud to endorse the Affordable Healthcare for America Act. We urge members of the House to pass this critical bill this year so our healthcare system can work for all of us,” AARP CEO A. Barry Rand said at a press conference.
Dems tout AARP endorsement; GOPs blast 'liberal' group - TheHill.com

As those that support the current healthcare legislation tout AARP's endorsement of the bill perhaps its worth mentioning some of the aspects of this...

(CBS) CBS News has learned that up to 60,000 people have cancelled their AARP memberships since July 1, angered over the group's position on health care.

Elaine Guardiani has been with AARP for 14 years, and said, "I'm extremely disappointed in AARP."

Retired nurse Dale Anderson has 12 years with AARP and said, "I don't wanna be connected with AARP."

Many are switching to the American Seniors Association, a group that calls itself the conservative alternative as CBS News Investigative Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports.
Thousands Quit AARP Over Health Reform - CBS Evening News - CBS News

What do you think is going to happen with AARPs members if this bill passes with 500 Billion dollars in cuts to Medicare? This trend of membership loss will no doubt continue and this sort of thing has happened before with AARP and they were burned badly ...

Even as Speaker Pelosi and President Obama attempt to trump the endorsement of purported seniors' advocacy organization AARP for the Pelosi health care bill as a monumental achievement, a look at past health care bill shows the AARP's "seal of approval" has often functioned as the "kiss of death" for proposals unpopular with the American people. Just as disturbing lies the fact that AARP's endorsements of legislation often coincides with special favors being bestowed in those very bills:

· In 1988, AARP endorsed the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act (P.L. 100-360)-so unpopular that it was repealed the following year. As Haynes Johnson and David Broder write in their analysis of the Clinton health care debate, The System, "AARP had been badly burned by the failure of the Medicare catastrophic insurance legislation...It endorsed that bill early, saw it become law, and then watched rival organizations of senior citizens lead the battle to have it repealed."

AARP Online Community: Health Action Now Mythbusters - From the Republicans: AARP on the wrong side again?

So in short an endorsement from AARP's management structure and business side does not equal an endorsement from it's members by any stretch of the imagination and to equate that somehow as some sort of endorsement by Seniors is a bit of a stretch.

 

[uscitizen]

60 thousand who listen to Rush? Just a drop in the bucket.

btw I have not been and do not plan to be an AARP member.

but I will never say never. I might see some advantage for myself and join.

 

[Mr. H.]

Think I'll just let my membership expire. I'll be able to order off the senior menus in January and that's got to be worth more than any benefits from Double-A RP.

 

[uscitizen]

Think I'll just let my membership expire. I'll be able to order off the senior menus in January and that's got to be worth more than any benefits from Double-A RP.

Somesenior discounts start at 55.

Ihop for one.
Yummy.

 

[Navy1960]

I have no clue if anyone who has cancelled membership in AARP listens to RUSH or not and did not see that as the cause listed in the Article. What I did see was many people expressing concern over cuts in benefits and if this was such a non issue, why then would AARP address it to it's own menbership?

For over fifty years, AARP's mission has been educating and engaging in the issues most important to you, our members. With over 40 million members we understand the importance of debate. Even when some members don't agree with our advocacy positions, it is critical that we make sure those differences of opinion are based on facts, not myths designed to derail a long overdue effort to fix what's wrong in our health care system.


Doing nothing is not an option. But any reform must not get between a patient and their doctor. It must not cut Medicare benefits. It must not allow insurers to continue to line their pockets by covering only the healthiest and the youngest

ShAARP Session

I suggest that even AARP management even its letter to its members is less that forthcomming because in case they didnt notice the current bill being debated has 500 Billion in cuts to Medicare. Perhaps this might be one reason why some people are choosing to leave this organization. The point though was to show that , an endorsement by AARP and especially AARP given its past history in such matters is by no means an endorsement of its members and to assume otherwise is a big leap of faith.

 

[uscitizen]

Yep leave medicare, it is being cut.

 

[Navy1960]

Interesting choice of words, most with Medicare may not have too as the number of treating Doctors that accept it will be reduced to such a point, that having Medicare without a supplemental will be more trouble than its worth.

rojected cuts in Medicare physician payments raise serious concerns that Medicare beneficiaries will lose access to needed physician services. A study by the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC) shows growing physician access problems among Medicare and privately insured patients. Patients have the most difficulties obtaining care from specialists and in certain communities. Proposals to increase Medicare fees across the board may prevent deterioration of access for Medicare beneficiaries but are unlikely to address system-wide access problems that vary by specialty and market
Issue Brief No. 55

The number of Texas physicians willing to take on Medicare insurance patients is declining, according to the Texas Medical Association, and even fewer doctors are expected to do so in the future.

Only 58 percent of Texas physicians are taking new Medicare cases, and only 38 percent of primary care physicians are doing so, according to a study conducted by the Houston Chronicle.

Across the country, only 600,000 of 1.5 million total physicians are currently willing to treat Medicare patients, the study notes.
Fewer Doctors In Texas Are Accepting Medicare Cases, Texas Health Insurance

So what do you think is going to happen when they start cutting Medicare and leveling out benefit payments?

The Senate found rare bipartisan agreement on a health-care issue Wednesday as 13 Democrats joined all 40 Republicans to block a permanent repeal of Medicare's payment formula for doctors.

Although sympathetic to fixing the root problem, lawmakers concluded that the legislation's $247 billion 10-year price tag was too steep in an era of record deficits.
Senate vote blocks plan for permanent fix to Medicare payments to doctors - washingtonpost.com

 

[Mike458877]

AARP is of no interest to me anymore and I have broken all ties with them.

 

[Sinatra]

AARP is of no interest to me anymore and I have broken all ties with them.

Good.

An utterly political organization with too deep ties to the radical labor movement.

More and more "seasoned" Americans are realizing just how liberal the AARP has become, and in that realization, walking away from it...

 

[BasicHumanUnit]

FUCK the AARP.

The only thing they advocate is a Progressive, Socialist Anti-American agenda.

If you're an AARP member, They're running millions of dollars of YOUR membership fees to try to replace lost membership through advertising. CONSTANT, 24/7 begging for new members..

I think they've lost 15-25 million members to date but still falsely claiming 37 million. They need to be audited for false advertising.

 

[Issa]

Hahaha the list keep growing so the trump extremists are boycotting so far:
NFL
Media
Hollywood
AARP
Muslims
Refugees
The pope
Blacks
The rest of the world
China
Etc.....the dumbest group of people that was ever assembled.

 

[asaratis]

AARP has supported the liberal agenda since its inception. AMAC is a reasonable alternative.

 

[miketx]

aarp can kma.

 

[whitehall]

AARP doesn't represent the political views of it's membership nor does it care. It's just another liberal democrat propaganda source.

 

[del]

isn't everything that way for a trumpling?