The AARP endorsed Medicare D(isaster) to supposedly “benefit” senior citizens who did not have rx coverage. However, a closer look at the endorsement of Medicare D(isaster) by the AARP has revealed the the AARP
was instrumental in passing the Medicare bill, continues to defend it and vigorously sells the United plan, from which it earns commissions.
Taking that into consideration, the passage and preservation
of Medicare D(isaster) is much more than a PR legislative win [than one] for the health and welfare of senior citizens.
continued below
In short, by its sales of the United plan, the AARP can generate tens of millions of dollars. Membership of the AARP totals 35 million, with dues costing $12.50 per year.
However, AARP has non-profit status. It represents seniors and is one of the most influential lobbying groups in the country. Other services provided to members include tax preparation assistance and safe driver education.
Rep. Pete Stark recognized the conflict of interest and claimed,
“They can’t have it both ways…It would be like Consumer Reports investing trust fund money in Chrysler and then promoting Chrysler cars. You can’t claim to be a disinterested advocate if you’re peddling insurance to make a profit and pay your overhead.”
Steve Hahn, spokesman for the AARP stated
“There are no limos in the garage…Any money AARP makes will get plowed back into the services our members want.”
Due to its marketing agreement with AARP, UnitedHealth has a lead in enrollment,
according to preliminary figures from major insurers and an analysis by Lehman Brothers’ Equity Research.
The AARP MedicareRx plan has at least 1.8 million members, according to UnitedHealth and AARP, making up more than half of the total enrollment of 3.2 million in all the Medicare-related plans offered by UnitedHealth.
After the AARP beneficiaries, the largest UnitedHealth contingent comes from the 840,000 members enrolled under PacifiCare. UnitedHealth, based in Minnesota, recently acquired the California insurer.
A link to the AARP website, complete with all of the advertising for Medicare D(isaster) is here. Other lobbying concerns have been previously diaried.
Also,
10 companies that won federal contracts to offer coverage under Medicare D, including California-based Pacificare Health Systems, gave a collective $6.5 million to members of Congress over the past six years.
Interestingly, following AARP beneficiaries, the largest UnitedHealth membership is from the 840,000 members enrolled under PacifiCare. UnitedHealth, based in Minnesota, recently acquired the PacifiCare. And according to Business Week,
by automatically assigning poor seniors to low-cost plans such as Humana’s, the feds are eliminating insurers’ marketing costs.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. But, according to Robert Laszewski, a former insurance executive who is now a consultant on health policy,
“It ain’t nickels and dimes.”
The deal could involve advertising fees and other payments in addition to royalties. If that is the case, it appears to possibly be similar to the marketing deal between Wal-mart and Humana. This deal consists of
Humana also [having] Medicare Part D sales representatives inside some Wal-Mart stores and markets a card that carries only the Wal-Mart logo.
and
a drugstore’s logo on the card is one way an insurer can reward its retail partners for their help enrolling members.
In this instance, it is possible that the reward could be similar, due to the customer volume of Walmart.
Larry Noble, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that tracks the influence of money in the political system said that
AARP should make a full disclosure.
Due to the intricacies of Medicare D(isaster), it is doubtful that the privately held companies will have to do so.
Street Kid, you are on fire with the coverage of this issue. I’m one of those people who follows it in the news and yet every day you still manage to tell me something I didn’t already know. I’m so impressed with all your work. ::big round of applause::
Not only am I convinced that this is a major step to single payer, but, I know what I went thru before (when I was sick during the sign up period and had doubts as to whether or not I would get my rx’s). This is just too important to pass up. There is so much that is all tied into this and I really want to write it.
Despite a tbi, I can still write–I am so grateful for that. (I love to!) And, as I thought after my most recent brush, I am here for a reason.
Yeah, I’m obsessed, but, I really feel that I am currentl y doing something more productive than I ever did in my entire life.
And I don’t know about your entire life, you still have quite a bit of it stretching before you, but what you are doing now is at the very least, valuable documentation for historians, and we may dare to hope, something that will cause people to think before the historians have a chance to scratch it on the cave wall.
And this is probably just the beginning! Thanks for the encouragement.
Go, Kid, Go!! You are making a big difference in this community and through it to the entire country. Suffice it to say that your diaries are the first ones I look for and the ones I always recommend. You have a talent for putting the incomprehensible into easy to understand prose with valuable links. Thank you!!!
And thanks for the recommends and the encouragement. Am so glad that people are reading and realizing what a mess things are. That is the first step to getting it changed.
xposted at MLW and dkos
I wondered why AARP so cravenly threw in their lot to endorse this travesty of a ‘plan’….now it makes perfect sense. It’s always, always, always-follow the money and which always leads to a big fuck you to the general public.
Should have been obvious to a hell of a lot of people. Well, now that this is such a fucked up mess, I really wonder now if how much more is going to come out about this. There is just so much that hasn’t been told about this…but, one of the things that really gives me some encouragement is that more and more info about the behind the scenes crap really played is coming out.
The AARP’s endorsement of this flawed program cost them a large number of members. My DH & I never joined because of it and my Mother dropped her membership. If you pursued the AARP message boards about the time that Plan D passed, you would have seen a lot of disgruntled members vowing to never again support the organization.
Someone on dkos posted something that said the same thing and linked to an older NYT article. But, the thing is that people are still unaware of everything that is goimg on behind the scenes.
And, one of the things that I touched on in an earlier diary, is that a person has to really be computer/internet literate to really understand all of the intricacies of this program.
Have been wondering for awhile if that could be one of the unspoken objectives, i.e., an increase in the computer market/sales of software and so on?
in your earlier articles on this, while more elders use computers and enjoy the internet today than even a few years ago, and I can attest anecdotally, elders are today much less likely to own a computer, or be “savvy” internet users than the younger generations.
I read a quote in another article, maybe one you posted, something to the effect that navigating and searching the medicare website is not the same as sending an email to a grandchild.
Low income and/or infirm elders are especially less likely to be, or to become computer users or have the funds to purchase their medicine, let alone computer products, and those who have descendants who will navigate the website for them already have computers and software.
And those the program impacts most are the low income and infirm.
This is what I wrote re: computer use.
Medicare D and the Reality of Computer Use
I almost signed up with AARP just the other day after being denied a drug by UnitedHealth, but I didn’t like what I read.
I get many of my meds from Canada. They are still cheaper than with some of United Health plan.
Just google canadian drug stores and do your comparison shopping. You then fax the prescription and they follow up with a phone call. Occassionally the pkg looks like it may have been checked out by postal customs or whoever, but its still an option.
If you examine AARP carefully you will find that it is chartered as an insurance company, not as some sort of public benefit lobbying firm.
AARP makes millions from tie-ins with life-, car-, extended care-, and medicare-insurance. The same thing goes for the travel and other services they provide. Aside from some lobbying and magazines, it is really just a front for the insurance industry.
It’s like the debt counselling services which are also “non-profit”, but then shift their customers over to a for-profit affiliate to do the refinancing. I cancelled my membership several years ago. Not only is AARP dishonest, but it doesn’t necessarily support policies that I favor. If I want some of my money to go to lobbying I’ll pick the place that represents my point of view. I suggest you do the same.
The AARP travel discounts at hotels, etc. are the same as what is given to any other affinity group, like AAA, so you don’t even need them for that.
Will keep that in mind for the future. Thanks!