Is AARP Beholden To ObamaCare?

Last year, at about the same time I hit my 50th birthday, I decided to join AARP, the organization that was once known as the American Association of Retired Persons. Sometime ago AARP decided to forgo its four word appellation, choosing to use the same sort of alphabet soup designation favored by federal bureaucracies as well as by many companies including AT&T, IBM and BB&T.  I’m not retired, probably many years from being in that position (if ever), but I wanted to have the benefits of AARP, including an excellent deal on their award winning magazine.

AARP’s Liberal Bent

Now I certainly know that AARP has a liberal bent, one that embraces an expanded federal government including endorsing ObamaCare. That doesn’t bother me because I’m used to working with people whose political views are all over the spectrum, but I’ve wondered if I’m part of a distinctly small minority of AARP conservatives who are older and prefer not to have the government run our lives.

Well, the past few weeks has revealed to me that many AARP members are NOT happy with ObamaCare and are particularly unhappy with the organization’s stance on that issue. Yesterday, I viewed a pair of YouTube videos about AARP including one where seniors were objecting to AARP volunteers’ positions about healthcare. That video was heavily edited, so it is difficult to determine just how much anger was flowing from the audience to the speakers, who soon shut the meeting down and left. That didn’t stop the two dozen or so remaining attendees from having their own meeting, which included a call for people to take back their government.

Royalty Fees For AARP

Aside from healthcare, AARP employs another controversial practice which many members may not know about. That practice involves receiving royalty fees for each time they recommend members to a product offered through their site or by way of one of their mailings. The video I have included here outlines this practice, revealing that AARP members may actually pay more for their auto insurance if they go through them instead of dealing directly with the insurance company.

For the record, I don’t have a problem with AARP, AAA and other organizations making some money off of a referral, but I believe that it is essential that this information be disclosed. I think I pay just $8 annually for my membership, which is next to nothing, but I don’t think it is right for AARP to make money on older Americans without their knowledge. From watching the video you will see that the plan pushed by AARP is costly and doesn’t deliver the promised savings – certainly, AARP could work with someone else who delivers maximum value while giving the organization some revenue.

Not Ready To Leave AARP

I’m not about to leave AARP despite my disagreement with them on some issues. However, I will continue to monitor the direction they take on any number of issues and I plan to express my viewpoint on healthcare to them.

I know that some of the seniors featured in the other video were planning to cancel their AARP membership, a move that believers of a smaller, central government may need to do. Millions of Americans are fed up at the “system” and are particularly angry if the organization that purports to represent them has financial motives for backing agendas contrary to what people want.

See Also — A Slow Bleed For Insurance Companies?

A Slow Bleed For Insurance Companies?

The national health care debate is boiling over with many Americans in an uproar over the prospect that their health care choices will be soon be limited by their federal government. Even some of the language being used by government proponents such as health care v. health insurance is misleading as all Americans have access to the former, though not everyone has access to the latter. Interchanging words is misleading and fuels the distrust that many of our fellow Americans have over what Congress and the president are attempting to force on the populace.

The House Takes A Break

ObamaCare is designed to crowd out private insurers which means that the entire American populace will eventually be under the federal plan. In a bid to contain costs, the federal government will ration care, which means that if you're sick or old, you'll be choosing a casket instead of getting a much needed medical referral.

Because various versions of the bill are being debated and congressional committees are routinely adding, subtracting or amending what is in the bill, I doubt that there are many people who understand exactly what is being proposed. Fortunately, members of the House of Representatives are now on summer break and won’t be back in action until September 8th (with the Senate joining them this Friday). This will make for a very good opportunity for Americans to show up at townhall meetings in August to voice their opinions though I’m sure that many House members will find a way to avoid facing their angry constituents if they can.

This past weekend, members of Obama’s team fanned out to speak on the Sunday talk shows with Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner, leading the charge where he stated that new taxes on the middle class were a possibility.

“I think that what the country needs to do is understand we’re going to have to do what it takes,” said Secretary Geithner when asked if he could rule out raising taxes on Americans earning less that $250 thousand a year, while simultaneously trying to cut the deficit. “We’re going to do what’s necessary.”

The Obama administration backed off from Geithner’s comments on Monday stating, “The president has made a very clear commitment to not raise taxes on middle-class families,” clarified White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. With Congress trying to shove health care “reform” through and with even a hint of their taxes being increased, Americans remain doubtful that the White House is being honest with them.

Fed Care Squeezes Out Private Care

But it was House Minority Leader John Boehner’s comments from last week which didn’t reported by the mainstream media that has a lot of people talking. CNSNews reported that Boehner sees that private health care will be allowed to die over time:

“I think it’s pretty clear that the government-run program that they want is going to eventually crowd out the private sector, and secondly, in their bill it says that after five years, you can’t go out and buy a health insurance policy on your own,” Boehner said.

“You have to go to one of their government exchanges to buy a plan that was designed by the government,” he added. “So it’s pretty clear that we’re going to have a big government-run system that will eventually drive out the private sector plans we have today.”

Even though I’ve heard “2013″ as the year when the new plan kicks in, if it passes Congress and is signed into law by the president this fall, then by next Spring I think we’ll already see a much different health insurance landscape in play. Specifically, knowing that they’ll eventually be forced out of business, insurance companies will probably not take new customers and begin to wind down their businesses, necessitating that the federal government step in with their own insurance.

No Choice Five Years Out

Government insurance will be cheaper than what the private carriers can offer, but as Boehner noted, you won’t have a choice after five years anyway.  You’ll have to sign on with a federally crafted plan which I believe by that time will completely replace private insurance altogether.

And with a plan costing one trillion dollars up front and trillions of dollars more down the line, the federal government will impose strict guidelines on the “care” that you will receive in a bid to control costs. That means cancer patients, the elderly, and anyone else who doesn’t fit into the government’s ‘wellness’ criteria will soon learn that ObamaCare is a plan that has truly been hatched in hell.

See Also — Read The Bill: Ya Think?!