Did AARP Read the Bill?
Posted November 5th, 2009 at 4:37pm in Health Care 
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AARP has endorsed the Pelosi health bill, H.R. 3962, but in reviewing the list of ten reasons it has given for its support and comparing those reasons to the bill itself, its advocacy for the legislation seems misplaced. There is a massive disconnect between several of the reasons for support and the bill itself. The inconsistencies include:
- Protecting and strengthening Medicare—the bill cuts Medicare payments to providers including hospitals, nursing homes, and home health agencies which AARP historically has not viewed as protecting the program. Moreover, the bill does not use the savings for the purpose of extending the Medicare Trust Funds but rather spends the money elsewhere.
- Improving Medicare’s payments to doctors—the proposal simply puts more money into a flawed price control system in which the lowest performing doctor gets paid the same as the highest performing doctor. Moreover, 25 percent of the cost of the increase in doctor payments will get passed onto AARP members. The costs due to the bill’s failure to reform the Medicare payment system will be passed on to seniors.
- Lowering drug costs for seniors and allowing Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices—seniors will have their costs lowered by shifting the future generations of retirees and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) continues to tell Congress and anyone else who will listen, as it has for years, that Medicare will be no better at negotiating for lower drug prices than the private sector, so there will be no savings.
- Taking steps to reduce waste, fraud, abuse, and inefficiency—CBO estimates the fraud prevention measures in the legislation will barely produce any savings. Reducing inefficiency is code for slashing the Medicare Advantage program. The Chief Actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) estimates 8 million Medicare beneficiaries will lose Medicare Advantage.
- Limiting how much your insurance company can make you pay out-of-pocket—this is nothing but bait and switch. It does not lower total cost, it simply switches the cost from the out-of-pocket pocket to the premium pocket.
Providing benefits to help seniors and people with disabilities live in their own homes and communities by establishing the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) program. Paul Harvey is needed to tell the rest of the story. No one will receive any benefits from CLASS for at least 5 years. No one who is currently eligible for Medicare because of disability will be eligible for benefits under the CLASS Act even after 5 years. And the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has the authority to cut benefits if not enough people choose to join the program. Imagine the outrage of giving the Commissioner of Social Security or the Administrator of CMS the authority to cut benefits on their own.
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11 Responses to “Did AARP Read the Bill?”
Ben, Salt Lake City UTAH on November 5th, 2009 at 4:37pm said:
This healthcare bill is FULL of problems! I’ve highlighted them, and the page numbers in the actual healthcare bill where you can find them at the site listed below.
****Please make your voice heard NOW by visiting http://www.foreverliberty.com. ****
This is a site I’ve put up where we will be collecting comments, compiling them into a professionally bound book, and mailing it to all the congresspeople who are still undecided.
Leon, Durango, CO on November 5th, 2009 at 4:37pm said:
I will bet you money that AARP is a recently usurped organization. The method is personal attacks, unsubstantiated charges, step asside bullying, and Sarah Palin style legal attacks and harassment (remember how the so called ‘free press’ attacked this proud patriot?) Lots of phoney baloney and probably murder, certainly crimes in the political sense, as in Infiltraitor. Somebody take a look, why is AARP suddenly anything but for the Retired Persons?
Sondra Green Wichita Ks on November 5th, 2009 at 4:37pm said:
Please stop H.R. 3962.
Mrs. Green
Bobbie Jay on November 5th, 2009 at 4:37pm said:
Whether aarp read the bill or not, this clearly shows their neglect of duty and honesty to properly inform their consumers, the seniors, that put great trust in this establishment. AARP TAKES ADVANTAGE OF VULNERABILITY THEY HAVE BEEN TRUSTED TO PROTECT… direct or indirect, government set-up… another collapse, another crisis…
Bernard H. Henrie-ALBUQUERQUE on November 5th, 2009 at 4:37pm said:
DOES AARP TRULY HAVE 40M SENIOR MEMBERS? IF SO, HOW ON GODS GREEN EARTH COULD THEY ENDORSE AND SUPPORT A HEALTH CARE BILL THAT CUTS 500B FROM SENIORS HEALTH CARE. SOME ONE PLEASE EXPLAIN. MAYBE AARP WOULD REPLY.
Denver Wright, Iola, Wi. on November 5th, 2009 at 4:37pm said:
I quit AARp this summer and joined the American Senior Org. They work for the senior citizen and younger people. All
AARP does is try to make money.
Denver Wright, Iola, Wi. on November 5th, 2009 at 4:37pm said:
I quit AARP this summer and joined the American Senior Org. They work for the senior citizen and younger people.
mackp on November 5th, 2009 at 4:37pm said:
Did AARP ask any of the members of AARP on if the wanted them to support the HEALTH CARE REFORM BILL with the Public Option. NO!!! AARP members would like to find a Law firm that would bring a Civil Law Suite againest AARP for supporting a bill that the members did not support. AARP DID NOT SPEAK FOR THE MEMBERS. AARP supports the Bill so they can make more money for AARP selling their supplement insurance plans and other products the get kickbacks from. We need to stop this now.
James Stecker New Holstein, Wi on November 5th, 2009 at 4:37pm said:
With AARP supporting this Health Bill I have talked to many citizens in the area who will
drop their membership. This will amount to
membership drops by the hundreds.
Darlene, PA on November 5th, 2009 at 4:37pm said:
I just called them and quit there org. They only represent there ins. co. now and will go along with anything that the are told to do. when I called they said they were 40 million strong well not anymore and I hope the rest of the people that belong to this org. do the same thing I did. And there membership needs to drop by the millions.
John Littleton Fayetteville, Ga on November 5th, 2009 at 4:37pm said:
I will not renew my membership in AARP for 2010. I recevied it in the mail yesterday and just filed it in the round file. AARP is nothering more than a insurance company that will make more money off the health care bill becasue of the cuts in medicare. They will increase monthly payments to cover the larger cost of services brought on by the decrease in funding of medicare under the health care billl that the congress has before them at the present time. AARP will benifit and pay higher salaries just like the banks because of increased profits. They sale care insurance , life insuarance, medical insuarance, ect. AARP is just a insurance company not a representative of the retired people of this country….