By Christopher Harper
Like many other seniors, I am bombarded daily by ads, emails, and letters from the American Association of Retired Persons.
AARP is not only a nuisance but also a dangerous, left-leaning organization that concerns itself more with its power than its members.
AARP members should cancel their memberships and, more important, seek other providers for Medicare Advantage and Medigap coverage
About half of those aged 50 years and older in the United States—or 38.5 million people—belong to AARP. That makes the organization one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the country. In comparison, the National Rifle Association has a mere 4.5 million members.
In a cogent analysis, Kimberly Strassel of The Wall Street Journal provided a pertinent example of AARP’s duplicity: its support for the Schumer-Manchin bill, known officially as The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
“The group’s particular focus is the provision that would allow the federal government to ‘negotiate’ Medicare drug prices and cap annual increases to inflation—though it is more than happy to also swallow the legislation’s tax hikes and climate spending,” Strassel wrote recently.
A University of Chicago study found that such a plan would reduce research dollars by $663 billion over the next 17 years, resulting in 135 fewer drugs. The study estimates a loss of 331 million years of life or more than 30 times the toll from COVID.
“Most devastated would be the people AARP claims to represent. Nearly 90% of adults 65 and older take at least one prescription medication—more than half report taking four or more. The AARP’s price controls would mean horrific hits to research in cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, you name it,” Strassel wrote.
The act also provides $64 billion to extend ObamaCare insurance subsidies. That’s a massive chump of change for insurers, including UnitedHealth Group, a company that paid $1 billion in royalty payments to AARP in 2020 alone.
But there’s more:
–AARP argues that climate change, which gets billions from the law, has been largely responsible for a rise in infectious diseases throughout the world.
–AARP supports widespread mail-in voting without a requirement for IDs, a significant means through which Joe Biden got elected.
–AARP supports the continuation of masks, social distancing, and contact tracing.
–AARP supports gay marriage.
If these reasons aren’t enough to cancel your AARP membership, consider the consumer complaints.
Sitejabber.com, which provides overall reviews for various products and services, gives a huge thumbs down to AARP.
“AARP has a consumer rating of 2.17 stars [out of five] from 200 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Consumers complaining about AARP most frequently mention car insurance, customer service, and junk mail problems,'” the website advises. See https://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/aarp.org for some of the other issues.
From just about any way you look at AARP, the organization doesn’t do much except to strive for more power rather than to help seniors!
That’s just my nickel, which I plan to spend on my membership for the Association of Mature American Citizens, or AMAC, which does a lot more for seniors than AARP and has a political agenda far more in keeping with my outlook. For more information, see http://www.amac.us.
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