AARP leader provides powerful voice for seniors and health care

John Rother tries to dispel myths and quell fears that seniors may have about health care reform as a leader at the powerful lobby and senior group AARP. The Washington Post reports: "As the policy director for AARP, the world's largest organization for people over 50, Rother has been on the front lines of the health-care-reform wars -- often under siege by Republicans and by some of his group's 40 million members. The attacks stepped up last week when AARP endorsed the House version of the reform bill" that includes a reduction in Medicare spending and cuts to Medicare Advantage, the private plans in the program. To dispel misinformation, the AARP has used a "blitz of e-mails, publications, ads and 150 tele-town hall meetings that have reached 6 million people, as well as another 135 live town hall meetings" (Romano, 11/12).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.