Gilbert Cranberg: AARP, the Really Big Insurance Company
Posted at 9:27 am, April 12th, 2011
Recently I attended a sales pitch for health insurance sold by United Health Care, the country’s largest private health insurer. I went to the session in response to an ad by AARP touting the meeting. The ad mentioned, in small type, that “UnitedHealthCare pays a royalty fee to AARP for use of the AARP intellectual property.”
No one at the meeting could describe or explain the fee. Nor could a call to AARP’s national office shed light. I am no longer in the dark: A recent 35-page report, “Behind the Veil: The AARP America Doesn’t Know,” by a couple of Republican members of the House Ways and Means Committee, reveals that in 2009 AARP pocketed $427 million in payments from United Health. That’s in addition to millions more from other insurers. AARP‘s 40 million members pay annual dues. Income from dues accounts for less than 20 per cent of the organization‘s revenues and it is dwarfed by what AARP collects from insurers.
The authors of the report, Representatives Wally Herger of California and Dave Reichert, Washington, seem to be worried that AARP is using its vast resources and lobbying clout to advance Democratic causes, mainly the Affordable Care Act. That view is a little selective, disregarding, for example, AARP’s key role in getting George W. Bush’s unfunded Medicare Part D enacted. AARP’s CEO at the time, William Novelli, even joined Bush at the White House in promoting and celebrating the bill.
As an AARP member who bought a Medigap policy largely on AARP’s say-so I am more concerned about whether AARP endorsed my policy because it was the best deal for me and other members or because it profited AARP. The secrecy surrounding AARP’s business deals heightens my suspicion and is also why Representatives Herger and Reichert call for an IRS investigation of AARP’s tax-exempt status.
The Herger-Reichert report shows that AARP withholds information about itself not only from its members but also from Congressional investigators. The report says the organization “refused to comply with repeated requests to share with members of Congress its tax filings and other financial documents.”
The pair forwarded the report to the IRS for further examination “which would include a review of the many documents withheld from members of Congress” but also to determine “whether the operational activities of AARP are primarily motivated by political or profit interests, instead of to benefit its members.”
AARP is a big and influential player in health care. The Ways and Means subcommittee report says AARP “would have been the sixth largest insurance company” in the U.S. last year based on its Medicare insurance business alone. That is reason enough for the press to be scrutinizing its activities and following up on questions posed by Representatives Herger and Reichert.
Why, among other questions, did the non-profit’s foundation recently agree to pay NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon $14 million in each of the next three years to be his primary sponsor? And is it true, as the report alleges, that AARP stands to make a windfall of more than a billion dollars over the next ten years from the new heath care law it endorsed?
It’s unfortunate that the representatives allowed their investigation of AARP to be tainted by the whiff of politics. The factual findings of their report, minus the partisan innuendo, deserve attention and follow-up.
April 18th, 2011 at 10:06 am |
I’m also wondering how AARP can offer a lifetime membership to individuals which is what I accepted and paid for and then a few years later revoked the membership and required a yearly fee.
Do we have any recourse?
April 22nd, 2011 at 4:38 pm |
AARP not only charges it membership fee, but it’s Medicare Supplement plan is often on the high end when compared to other carriers. Medigap plans are standardized by the government, meaning each company must offer the same benefits for each plan type. Seniors should shop around. If they did, they would realize how much more they are paying for the exact same plan. They can tout a small % increase year over year, but when your plan is almost double in premium when compared to other carriers, who is making out like a bandit??
Heather
Find a better Medigap Plan
May 4th, 2011 at 7:44 pm |
#1. AARP is not an insurance company persay. They are an organization.
#2. Yes, the government says what must be covered in each policy, but insurance companies can add coverage to the benefit package.
#3. They contract with other insurance companies to handle their client lists and get paid for each that joins.
4. They are in it for the money——–not the welfare of the senior citizens. Thats a lot of whooey!!
February 21st, 2012 at 9:40 pm |
I have had the worst customer service with the AARP United Healthcare. I attended a meeting to explain the benefits which was substandard. After signing up my mother (I am power of attorney) several benefits she had been receiving through her former provider were denied. The appeal process was exhausting and still pending. My mother’s physician prescribed a hospital bed and diabetics medications that were denied. Trying to talk to customer service was a joke. The person I talked with was rude and non-helpful. I filled a 72 hour appeal and was told it was not life threatening (which I disagree with) and was referred to a 30 day appeal. I am frustrated with it as well as the primary care physician. Why does an insurance company decide they know more than the primary care physician. I hope my Mother at 90, lives long enough to change the medicare insurance coverage with AAPR United Healthcare to anther provider.