Seniors betrayed by AARP and White House

Human Quest, Jan/Feb 2004

From Facts for Action, Dec. '03

A controversial Medicare "overhaul" bill, ostensibly to provide prescription drug coverage, has been signed into law by President Bush, despite the fact that beneficiaries will not be allowed to buy insurance to cover their share of prescription drug costs. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) said, "This bill is a calculated program to unravel Medicare, to privatize it . . . and to put seniors in the cold arms of HMOs." (Kansas City Star, Nov. 26).

It is controversial not only for the difference between Republicans' and Democrats' attitudes toward the legislation, but because it was endorsed by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), which Public Citizens, a consumer advocacy group, said "would gain many millions of dollars in new income under the Republican Medicare bill."

The Internet group Moveon.org has done the following report and commentary on the bill saying, "The AARP has endorsed a bill that would make two fundamental changes in Medicare:

* "First, it would force people to make a stark choice: either pay sharply increased premiums to stay in traditional Medicare, where they can choose their doctor, or be forced out, into a Health Maintenance Organization. Newt Gingrich, the former House Republican leader, said in 1995 that he wanted to let Medicare "wither on the vine."

This change would lead to that result, with cost incentives driving people out. (AARP CEO William Novelli recently wrote the foreword to Gingrich's book.)

* "Second, it offers a prescription drug benefit, but requires people who want this coverage to buy it from private insurance plans. This part of the bill also bars the government from doing the one thing it could do to actually reduce the cost of these drugs - negotiate for lower prices, using the size of the Medicare program as leverage. Drug prices are soaring now, and unless they're brought under control, they will eventually bankrupt Medicare. AARP itself sells insurance and also sells prescription drugs, so the group stands to reap huge financial gains from this change.

* "The bill has been opposed by a host of liberal groups as well as major conservative groups, including the Club for Growth, the Heritage Foundation, the American Conservative Union, the Cato Institute and the National Taxpayers Union. And it has been assailed by virtually every one of the Democratic presidential candidates.

"In endorsing this bill, the AARP has broken faith with its members. In a recent poll, 65% of AARP members said they're opposed to it. The group also has violated its own written principles. In July, CEO William Novelli wrote to Congress stating the requirements for AARP's support of a Medicare bill. Yet the bill AARP has just endorsed (and spent money advertising) fails to meet 9 separate requirements stated in that letter." (www.Moveon.org, Nov. 21)