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aarp_logo_s10“To serve, not be served.”

AARP sent me one of those unsolicited AARP membership letters with the pre-printed membership card.  So I called their 800 number and said I was interested in joining however I have a few questions and wanted to understand the AARP position on the Healthcare Bill.

The nice lady that I spoke with was located in Nevada.  She explained to me that AARP supports this bill and it not a “socialist” plan as some are saying.  She went on to tell me that this plan would cover the 47 million individuals not insured and that number was probably a lot higher.  I asked for the source of this data however she was not sure where I could find this information.

She went on to say that this plan would cover the “donut hole” and wanted to know if I knew about this “donut hole”.  I said that I was not familiar with this term.  She explained that her son does not have medical coverage and this is the “donut hole”.  I told her that I now understand because I also have a daughter who had purchased her own medical insurance and I would be sure to tell my daughter about this “donut hole” and it would disappear under this new plan.

At the end of the conversation I declined to join AARP.  I explained that I don’t think we should change the entire system just for the unemployed or otherwise those that would be covered by either medicare or medicaid.  I explained that I like my current plan and why not just fix the areas that need improvement?  The nice lady suggest that I read their website and I explained that I was reading their website and this was the reason I was calling because I did not understand their position(s).  I wonder now how many AARP members that voted for this new Administration due to AARP’s influence?  Note:  For the record, per Wiki:

The term “donut hole” (or “doughnut hole“) refers to a coverage gap within the defined standard benefit under the Medicare Part D prescription drug program. Under the defined standard benefit package, there is a gap in coverage between the initial coverage limit and the catastrophic coverage threshold. Within this gap, the beneficiary pays 100% of the cost of prescription drugs before catastrophic coverage kicks in.

See previous Posting:  CBO/JCT Preliminary Analysis: America’s Affordable Health Choices Act

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Lessons From Home: What Obama’s Grandmother Taught Him About Long-Term Care

From the Editor,  By: Jim Toedtman | March 2, 2009

obama_grandparentsBarack Obama wants to reform the nation’s health care system. That’s good news. The better news is his intimate knowledge of the reasons that reform is so necessary. Perhaps no president has taken office with such personal exposure to the critical aspects of American health care—especially the challenges we face in restructuring a fractured system and bringing costs and services into balance with needs.

Lessons from home, namely the experiences of his mother and grandmother, will come into sharp focus as Obama proposes his first federal budget. His administration and Congress must wrestle with the conflicting dynamics of a soaring national debt, lagging revenue and a $2 trillion annual health care bill that still leaves 45 million Americans uninsured and consumes one-quarter of the federalbudget—even as U.S. infant mortality rates are higher, and longevity lower, than in the rest of the industrial world.

“My mother died very suddenly and very young,” Obama told the AARP Bulletin last fall. [Read the complete interview at bulletin.aarp.org.] Ann Dunham died in 1995 at age 52 after working as a consultant for the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Ford Foundation and Women’s World Banking. She taught her son an important lesson about access to health care. “She’d go from contract to contract and would be able to buy health insurance [only] when she got a new contract,” Obama said. “When she got sick, she had just signed up for a new job, a new contract, and she had a lot of arguments of whether this was a preexisting condition of which she had no knowledge whatsoever.” Later he added, “As someone who watched my mother argue with insurance companies while she lay in bed dying of cancer, I will make sure those companies stop discriminating against those who are sick and who need care the most.”

From his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, who continued living in the same Honolulu apartment where he had been raised, Obama learned important social and economics lessons about long-term care. “What I’ve learned from watching my grandmother is that with some modest help she’s able to remain independent,” he told the Bulletin shortly before she died. “And that costs the system much less than if she’d gone into a long-term care facility. The problem we have is that so much of our system is built around institutional care that we end up spending more money than we need to and probably with worse outcomes in a lot of cases.

“These are not abstractions for me,” he said frequently during the campaign. Nor are they abstractions for millions of Americans. As AARP’s leaders write in a letter to the White House [see page 10], this is an important moment for the nation. With the approaching retirement of 78 million boomers, reining in health care costs and strengthening the core safety net are crucial to stabilizing the nation’s finances and establishing an upgraded and rational system of health care. Starting points are the leadership of the president and the firsthand lessons he learned from his mother and grandmother. His first book was titled Dreams From My Father. His next must be “Lessons Learned.”

Related:

AARP Bulletin today:  A. Barry Rand on Closing the Doughnut Hole (Video)

AARP Bulletin today:  Obama Unveils ‘Doughnut Hole’ Solution

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Is AARP playing racial and social politics at their member’s expense?

One Citizen Speaking, July 19, 2009

Why would AARP blindly support a healthcare system which is ill-defined and which appears to feature a “best practices” approach which may be extremely hostile to the needs of senior citizens seeking advanced healthcare in the last stages of life?

…“Prior to joining AARP, Mr. Rand distinguished himself as a leader of social change in some of our nation’s largest corporate and educational institutions.”

… “Approximately seven million people have AARP branded health insurance, including drug coverage and medigap, as of April 2007  and AARP earns more income from selling insurance to members than it does from membership dues.”

…“In early 2007 AARP launched “Divided We Fail, ” designed to address health care and long-term financial security. The initiative was launched with Business Roundtable and the Service Employees International Union, and encompasses advertising in national outlets and in the primary states, online activities, and traditional grassroots work, in order to engage the public, business and elected officials in the debate, and to encourage public leaders to offer solutions, according to the AARP.”

The SEIU, under investigation for corruption within the leadership of some of its locals, openly advocates for “in-home” family health workers in California (a program riddled with fraud)  and is trying to unionize these workers with an eventuality of becoming California State employees. It is my opinion that the SEIU is to unions as ACORN is to community organizing…

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AARP Annual Reports (Source: AARP) (pdf)

Related Links:

Michelle Malkin:  The left-wing mortgage counseling racket

Zimbio:  Why would AARP support Daschle Plan?

Dick Morris:  OBAMA WILL REPEAL MEDICARE

WSJ:  Obama Endorses Drug Companies’ Plan to Cut Costs for Seniors

LewRockwell:  Are There Really 47 Million Americans Who Can’t Afford Health Insurance?

Topix:  Why Is AARP trying to sell its members on Obama’s health plan?

The Hill:  New AARP chief gave big to Obama

Politico:  AARP threatens senators on health care reform

American Thinker:  ‘Shock the Monkey’ Healthcare

Politico:  WH discloses health-care execs’ visits

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Update:  Added Politico Link

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