AARP under attack in GOP efforts against health law

Apr 1 2011

House Republicans issued a report Wednesday and plan to hold a hearing Friday to investigate AARP's support for the health law as well as the organization's business interests.

The Washington Post: In Campaign Against Health Care Law, Republicans Take On AARP
House Republicans, who are continuing their efforts to chip away at President Obama's health care law, have now set their sights on a powerful group that strongly supported the legislation: the AARP seniors lobby (Eggen, 3/30).

The Hill: GOP Report Questions AARP's Motivations For Supporting Health Care Reform
"Over and over during the health care debate, questions arose about why AARP was appearing to lobby in opposition to its members," said [Wally] Herger (R-Calif.), who chairs the panel's health subcommittee. "We couldn't understand why AARP would support a health care reform bill that would threaten access to doctors (and) hospitals and could force seniors out of the plan they know and like …" The report looked at AARP's public tax filings and concluded that the group stands to gain $1 billion from the health care reform law. That's because AARP makes considerably more from royalties (46 percent of revenues in 2009) than from membership dues (17 percent) (Pecquet, 3/30).

Bloomberg: AARP May Get $1 Billion on Health Law, House Republicans Say
A group of House Republicans said seniors lobby AARP will gain as much $1 billion over the next decade from the 2010 health care overhaul it supported and should have its tax-exempt status investigated. AARP represents 37 million people ages 50 and over in the U.S. Its gains will come from insurance products it endorses and that will attract customers under the health law, a group of Republicans on the House Ways and Means committee said in a report released today (Armstrong, 3/30).

The Fiscal Times: Republicans Continue Attack On AARP For Conflict of Interest
AARP's structure is not unique. Many non-profits run for-profit subsidiaries to generate revenue for their charitable and lobbying activities. The Smithsonian's or National Geographic's television deals come to mind, or every museum's gift shop. Yet the scale of AARP's insurance subsidiary's dealings (it runs its own firm as well as forms partnerships with UnitedHealth Group and other insurers) is breathtaking. The Ways and Means report, based on publicly available documents, found that insurance royalties paid to the non-profit side of the 40 milllion-member AARP nearly tripled to $657 million between 2002 and 2009, which constituted 46 percent of its $1.4 billion in revenue (Goozner, 3/30).

Modern Healthcare: GOP Lawmakers See AARP Profiting From Reform Law, Question Group's Tax Status
A new federal report concludes AARP could make $1 billion in profits (PDF) in the next 10 years as a result of the health care reform law and it questions the tax-exempt status of the organization representing America's seniors. Reps. Charles Boustany (R-La.,), Wally Herger (R-Calif.) and Dave Reichert (R-Wash.) — all members of the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee — released the report, which cited Richard Foster, chief actuary at the CMS, as saying that about 6 million to 7 million Medicare Advantage beneficiaries will leave those plans and will want auxiliary coverage, and Medigap will be the most straightforward way to get it. A Medigap policy is private health insurance intended to supplement Medicare as it helps pay some of the health care costs that Medicare doesn't, according to HHS (Zigmond, 3/30).

The Seattle Times: Reichert Claims AARP Had Hidden Motive To Back Health Care Overhaul
Did AARP, the nation's leading advocacy group for older Americans, fight for last year's federal health care law to the detriment of its members? Guilty, according to U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert and his fellow House Republicans — and they contend AARP had a motive. On Wednesday, three members of the House Committee on Ways and Means released a report detailing what they called troubling conflicts over the nonprofit group's multimillion-dollar foray into for-profit insurance businesses. Titled "Behind the Veil: The AARP America Doesn't Know," the report takes aim at possibly stripping AARP of tax-exempt status. The organization was one of the most vocal supporters of the Affordable Care Act, which Republicans are attempting to repeal (Song, 3/30).

Roll Call: AARP Is Next On GOP Target List
House Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday released a report that accuses the influential senior citizens organization of having a conflict of interest because it will financially benefit from the health care overhaul that the group heavily lobbied for last year. AARP collects royalties from endorsing health insurance policies and other products (Roth, 3/31).