Just a reminder, we have a rotten Medicare prescription drug program in part because of the AARP.
Public Citizen has the details of some of AARP’s conflict of interest.
AARP Has Financial Conflict of Interest in Medicare Drug Bill
“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.
The The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has a specific take down of the AARP’s deceptive advertising.
The new law also risks weakening Medicare financing by manufacturing an artificial Medicare financing crisis. The legislation creates a presumption that no more than 45 percent of Medicare’s costs should come from general revenues, even though Medicare Part B (which pays for physician and other outpatient services) and the new drug benefit are supposed to be financed through general revenues. The new law calls for the issuance of official government reports every year that identify the year in which the 45-percent threshold will be reached and that indicate the magnitude of the “unfunded liability” of the Medicare program as a whole. The new law mandates that this “unfunded liability” be computed based on the assumption that general revenues cannot defray more than 45 percent of overall Medicare costs. This provision of the new law also requires the consideration of legislation to make changes in Medicare that would keep general revenues from covering more than 45 percent of costs.