Public Citizen: AARP Has Financial Conflict of Interest in Medicare Drug Bill
http://www.commondreams.org/news2003/1121-06.htm WASHINGTON - November 21 - An analysis by the national consumer group Public Citizen suggests that there were strong financial incentives for AARP to support the Republican-drafted Medicare prescription drug bill, because the organization is likely to realize significant profits from the programs to be established by the legislation. AARP has created shock waves within the political world by endorsing the prescription drug bill now before Congress, despite numerous provisions in the bill that violate the organization’s previously stated positions.
AARP has launched a $7 million ad campaign to support the bill, with TV and newspapers ads running in numerous major markets across the country.
Public Citizen’s analysis demonstrates that while AARP might be considered primarily a membership organization, it has in many ways become a business – one that derives approximately 60 percent of its revenues from a variety of insurance-related ventures, and only 29 percent of its revenues from membership dues.
The analysis shows that the majority of AARP’s annual revenue comes from selling such products as Medigap supplemental drug insurance policies and offering prescription drug discount cards. It also sells its membership list to corporations, such as health insurers, and sells advertising space in its magazine to customers that include pharmaceutical and insurance companies. Plus, it earns income by temporarily investing insurance premiums paid by its members before they are due to the insurer. Click here to read the analysis.
"Taking its business activities into account, AARP would stand to gain tens of millions of dollars each year in new income under the Republican Medicare bill, a finding that presents a significant conflict of interest for an organization trying to represent the best interests of its members," said Frank Clemente, director of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch.
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I am so glad that, when I became eligible, I declined membership. I did po because I abhor the practice of lobbying and AARP is one of the largest such organisations extant.
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