What is AARP today?

[Syrinx]

I've been reading a lot of stuff about the organization. And asking questions of a lot of people that I know.

And I'm quite confused by the answers I get.

Is the AARP a non-profit lobby that seeks to protect the well-being of seniors, and near-seniors?

Or is it a for-profit insurance company, with other outside business ventures that seek to profit from the concerns and fears of an aging population?

I'm not sure what to think of them.

[safeinOhio]

1. Use to be I didn't think much of them

then I called them with a question about a new bill in congress a couple of years ago. They had someone research it for me and called back with all of the inside information. I signed up the next week. Plus you do get some good discounts from retailers. I do disregard their insurance offers.

If the new tea baggers in congress are going after them now, they can't be all bad.

[Syrinx]

3. "If the new tea baggers in congress are going after them now, they can't be all bad. "

That put them in favorable light for me also. But I've also heard a lot of what Lasher is saying. :shrug:

[Lasher]

2. They're an insurance company.

They sold out for a piece of the action when Medicare Part D came along. They are still pretending to care about seniors. It's a great marketing gimmick for them.

[Syrinx]

4. I've been hearing that a bunch too

But I'm also told the stuff that safeinOhio is saying too. Both opinions from people I trust. See what I mean? :(

[Lasher]

6. At present, there are two affiliated organizations:

The AARP Foundation which operates on a non-profit basis and AARP Services Inc. which is managed wholly for profit. The AARP Foundation runs programs on: free tax preparation and counseling, work training for older people of low income, training of volunteers on matters concerning the elderly, crime prevention and safe driving.

AARP Services Inc. offers: Medicare supplemental health insurance, discounts on prescription drugs and consumer goods, entertainment and travel packages, long-term care insurance and automobile, home and life insurance.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AARP#2009_membership_controversy

[Sherman A1]

5. Like anything else they are a bunch of things

Yes, they are an insurance company or marketing company of sorts (which go to the shredder, then recycle)

They do provide some discounts on retail & travel (so I use them for that)

Their publications can have a few good tips and articles from time to time (like utility rate hikes in my state and who to contact to oppose them).

They do lobby Congress on some issues of importance to Seniors.

So they are a mixed bag.

[leveymg]

7. Let's put it this way: had AARP not come out against it, SS would've been privatized long ago.

That, alone, would be reason to support the the group. There are a thousand other progressive positions on issues that they've taken.

So, yes, AARP is still relevant and a constructive force today.

[bluestate10]

11. Republicans hate AARP and are angling to destroy that organization

any way they can. Knowing that makes me wonder about the OP. If AAPR was federally funded ala Planned Parenthood, we would be staring it's demise squarely in the face. But AARP sells insurance to seniors after insuring that insurance meets the needs of seniors and is legitimate, republicans have launched an attack that AARP acts on a profit motive as a non-taxable. Republican objectives are twofold, if either works, republicans will be in bliss. If AARP is found to make money off insurance, republicans will move to strip non-tax status, driving up insurance costs for seniors. If AARP is found to be doing an above board service to it's senior members, republicans, by bringing investigations, would have cast aspersions on the organization and forced AARP to pull in on it's support for health care and senior benefits causes championed by democrats.

[leveymg]

12. The same thoughts crossed my mind, as well. The OP needs to explain his motives.

What's the Beef, there "Bear"?

[Syrinx]

15. that's pretty feeble reasoning

Nobody hates republicans and corporatism more than I do. And that's why I hate a corporate insurance scam pretending to be a non-profit public-interest group looking out for senior citizens.

[leveymg]

16. There are bigger and better targets out there.

If you are what you say, you're playing with the opposing team on this one.

AARP may not be perfect, but they are a solid player on "our" (the middle-class) side.

[Boxerfan]

8. Glenn Beck hates 'em-so I love 'em....Is this a bait thread??

Wich is why I gave this crap an unrec...

[bluestate10]

10. I wonder about the thread too.

Republicans are in full assault on AARP because that organizations stands with democrats on health cared and protecting social security. Now this thread, which is bashing AARP, shows up on DU, with a few amen posters reccing it. Those that do the most damage sometimes take on your image. I have had similar concerns with other threads done on DU that used hot button republican causes, crafted in different wording, but having the same tilt.

[bluestate10]

9. Would you rather the organization depend on federal and state

government funds to operate, ala Planned Parenthood. By offering insurance to seniors, AARP can insure that insurance meets the needs of seniors. Would you rather seniors deal with a national insurance company the many on DU are happy to rail against? Republicans are working to get AARP investigated due to it's insurance offerings that actually protect seniors. Now the issue of AARP insurance offerings come up on DU with a negative tilt. What gives?

[xchrom]

13. there's aarp before alan simpson went after them in 95 - i think - and before.

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4278433.html

bunch of links -- mostly wapo -- that documents simpson's efforts to neutralize aarp.

and then there was alan simpson going after aarp when he was on the cat food commission
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/The-Vote/2010/0825/Social-Security-Alan-Simpson-offends-almost-everyone-with-cow-quip

'But Wednesday, a quip made by the man who is now a co-chair of President Obama's bipartisan deficit commission was no laughing matter – at least to liberal activists and bloggers now calling for his head.

In an e-mail this week to Ashley Carson, executive director of the National Older Women's League (OWL), Simpson compared Social Security to "a milk cow with 310 million !" Only he didn't say "teats" but something similar, and shall we say, a bit more colorful and perhaps derogatory. And he concluded by telling Ms. Carson to "call when you get honest work!"

Ouch! In a few words, Simpson managed to infuriate feminists, Social Security recipients, and liberal Democrats (a group already none too happy with the Obama administration).'

back in the day -- aarp was a more aggressively vocal defender of seniors and SS and medicare.
they are some what more muted today -- because of republican attacks.

here's a great article from daily kos
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/09/12/901163/-Alan-Simpsons-history-as-a-total-dick

' Here’s where the missing history and context come in, and why they should be useful for journalists who will cover this story for the rest of the year. In the mid-1990s, Simpson, as chair of the Senate Finance Committee’s subcommittee on Social Security and family policy, picked up the attacks made on the organization by conservative think tanks worried that AARP could block their efforts to cut Medicare and Social Security....

Simpson, who disagreed with the AARP’s positions on Medicare and Social Security, believed the group was obstructing budget cuts that Republicans needed to make in order to offset a planned round tax cuts. Simpson held hearings on the AARP’s finances. "I’m a chairman. I can have hearings," he boasted to reporters in the Capitol corridor, dancing a little jig and pumping his arms in the air. A few days before he announced the hearings, Simpson said "People ought to know where their money comes from and what it’s used for." As I reported at the time, Simpson never produced a smoking gun, but he created plenty of smoke, focusing on irrelevancies like the size of AARP’s new building and its executives’ salaries.

But the AARP recognized what the hearings were really about. At a meeting with AARP’s board and staff, Simpson told them "I want you to know that the intensity of my investigation will be directly related to the intensity of your fight on Medicare." In an interview then, AARP’s chief lobbyist John Rother told me: "Many people on the right wing realized that AARP was the force to contend with. They realized they wouldn’t get anywhere unless they dealt with us as an institution."

[leveymg]

17. I remember that. Maybe, the OP should refresh his recollection and get the context.

[donco]

14. If the teabagger branch of the repugs

are agin it,well you fill in the rest.