AARP: The ACORN of Obamacare

Anthony Wallace (Scribe) on March 30th, 2011
.
In a scathing report released just today, an outrageous conflict of interest concerning AARP has emerged. At the core of this report; does AARP act in the best interest of its members, as it should, or in the best interest of AARP’s bottom line, and is there an outright conflict of interest?

At the heart of the investigation (as well as the upcoming hearing): Did AARP support the cuts of $200 Billion to Medicare Advantage because it stood to gain financially from sales of the coverage which they offer and/or endorse? We're talking about financial gains in the neighborhood of $166,000,000.00

In 2009, nearly half of AARP’s operating revenue came from royalties generated from private insurers. As in, from insurers which AARP lent its name to.

According to the report, AARP would be the 6th largest insurance company in the United States, and the LARGEST enroller in the Medicare Market by a margin of nearly 3:1 to its closest "competitor."

This begs the question, what IS the primary function of AARP? Is it a membership organization, or a profit driven empire? If it is the latter, guess what, AARP may very well lose its tax exempt status.

Is AARP an organization or an insurance company, operating without license? The lines between advocacy and outright lobbying seem to be blurring, wouldn’t you agree?

The timing of this report simply could not be worse for AARP. With their upcoming April 1, Ways and Means Health Subcommittee hearing, this scathing report outlines a host of embarrassing abuses and irregularities.

In addition to the profit drive, another issue that is particularly concerning is how they use those dollars. According to this report, from 1998-2010, AARP placed FOURTH in highest lobbying expenditures.

More information is sure to emerge. In the meantime, you can read the full report here.http://waysandmeans.house.gov/UploadedF ... _29_11.pdf
http://redcounty.com/content/aarp-acorn-obamacare

SEE ALSO

[quote]GOP report: AARP stands to make $1 billion from ObamaCare, IRS should investigateShare
posted at 9:05 pm on March 30, 2011 by Allahpundit
printer-friendly Good stuff. AARP is the Death Star of American entitlements, so if the GOP wants to reform Social Security and Medicare, they’re going to have to fire some photon torpedoes. This one could do a little damage: Seniors have always been wary that O-Care will siphon off money from Medicare, which makes it exceedingly odd that their chief lobbyist came out in support of the legislation. In fact, CBS reported in 2009 that up to 60,000 seniors had canceled their memberships in disgust over it. Hence the political value of today’s report: On the eve of a Republican push on entitlements, the GOP’s planting another seed of doubt in seniors’ minds about AARP’s integrity. Won’t be decisive, but since fiscal conservatives are going to be smeared nine ways to Sunday once our “adult conversationâ€