ShAARP Session: Observations from AARP

Hey John, after watching your video maybe I just now get it. If we seniors are having problems with healthcare, it's a great idea to just borrow the money from our children and grandchildren to pay for us! It also helps employment because of all the bureaucrats the feds and states will have to hire to administer the mountains of paperwork, and special investigators to look into all the fraud that will result from gaming the system!

It's not our problem that the federal deficit will as a result climb to ever more astronomic heights, because by the time that bill comes due, most of us will be dead! But for now, we can enjoy spending our kid's futures, just because we can. And because your don't mention tort reform, I am guessing you are really opposed to that, so we can all continue to make incredible malpractice claims! The fact that litigation is what really drives up insurance and medical costs won't be relevant anymore, because we'll all now have a Fed plan to fall back on AND we can keep making the lawyers happy!! (they are such a vital part of our economy, don't you agree John?)

Cool !! I love it!! Bring it on John!!

Membership to AARP is due in October and I refuse to renew. Honestly how can you with a decent conscious tell us how good this government run health care plan is going to be when our congressman cannot even tell us the facts. Most don't even understand the bill! This won't effect me that much at age 62, I have lived a full life but my kids deserve better than this outrages spending.

Dear AARP, I saw your ads for AARP last night on national TV. They are very slanted. Your ads are not telling the true story! Let talk about the number of 47 million people that the President says do not have health care. About 15 million of those are in the country illegially, another group (many millions) have access to healthcare but do not take it. They are usually in the 20-30 age group that are invincible. That leaves about 8 to 6 million that need health care. Let's find a simple was to help those without the government interfering!
Medicare and Medicaid are about 71 billion in the red this year do to fraud and waste. Why not fix that! The private insurance payouts to the doctors and hospitals help finance the the low pay outs from Medicare and Medicaid. Let's inact TORT reform and cut the amounts that doctors and hospital pay for malpratice insurance. Let's allow insurance companies to provide care across state lines.
The spending in Washington is out of control and it looks as though AARP is in backing Democratic Party and President Obama.
Your comment about lower pay because of healthcare cost??? If the government gets a single payer system or public option, businesses and citizens will be heavily taxed and there will be fewer jobs. There are only so many people to tax in the upper incomes. Those so called "rich" that make $200,000 or more cannot take on the burden. How many of your members are willing to do that?
AARP should remain neutral and stay out of the White House! You have become a very liberal/socialist non-profit organization that does not represent your members!

PS I cancelled my membershiip yesterday.

Just want to let you know that I will be cancelling my AARP membership due to the position you (AARP organization) have taken on Obama's Health care reform. I really can't understand at all why you have chosen to go against the desires of the people you are supposed to represent. If you change your position, let me know. Until then I will not be a member.

i too will be cancelling my membership. the commercials being run on tv obviously to me ARE endorsing obamacare contrary to AARP claiming they aren't endorsing. our country cannot continue this path away from our constitution. health care is NOT a right - it is a privilege, earned by holding a job. A job i no longer have due to the mishandling of so many aspects of our economy. the additional kicker for me also is my representatives is not holding any townhall meetings. let me correct myself. debbie stabenow (D-MI) IS holding a townhall - IN OHIO!!!!!!!!!!!!

sounds good

MediaCurves.com just conducted a study with 306 viewers of a pro health care reform ad by the AARP. The results showed that the ad failed to increase favorability levels across all political parties. The study also found that 82% of Democrats and 66% of Independents reported that the AARP ad was effective, compared to 42% of Republicans who indicated that it was effective. For more in-depth results, please visit http://www.mediacurves.com/HealthCare/J7510-Pro-Health-Care-Reform/Index.cfm
Thanks,
Ben

That video was kind of creepy. OK, shaking it off, shaking it off shaking it off...

First, we expected REEFORM that would start cleaning up the problems in healthcare and reduce costs. Then ...Washingtons plans for affordable coverage options.

REQUIRED REFORMS:

Lobbyists
If this doesn't get fixed we will never get reform or help, but, we will have all of their hands in our wallets!

Nobody lobby's on behalf of the American citizen . The health of American citizens is precious, and should not be sold for campaign dollars. END Healthcare lobbying. Plain and simple this is a conflict of interest that needs to stop.

In no way has health care lobbying been beneficial to the American public . In fact, it has driven the cost of health care up for the American people, delivering billions if not trillions of dollars in guaranteed increased costs of goods and services for the benefit of insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies and other health industry organizations.

We realize that nobody lobby's for free. Lobbyists are out for two things: a larger slice of whatever pie they are after, and more money/contracts. Every time that our politicians cut deals with and accept money from lobbyists they sell their constituents out . All for a little (or a lot of ) campaign funding.

Tort reform

Redefining malpractice to be intentional, malicious or illegal actions all of which could be handled in court .

Redefining malpractice to not include accidents or mistakes as as these are a normal part of living and being human. We all make mistakes, doctors should not be punished just because they work in the life or death environment . These instances should be handled through each person's life for health insurance policy (lose a hand you get X dollars , lose an eye, you get X dollars ...These policies already exist )

Require the AMA to provide and sell malpractice insurance for all licensed Physicians (this has numerous benefits, but two of the largest are the added benefit of motivating the AMA to deal with doctors that have multiple malpractice lawsuits, who settle multiple times prior to going to trial, have a series of complaints or other issues and acting as a massive co-op could get better pricing for all doctors)

Cap attorney/ law firm payments , which have driven many doctors away from their practices. Many law firms pursue the highest possible dollar amount in order to generate their own revenue. This is counter intuitive to cost affordable health insurance. ***lawyers and law firms, via their lobbyists , are one of the top three contributors to re-election campaigns*** so, motivating Washington to make this change would be challenging

Pharmaceutical companies

Politicians with the help of lobbyists have effectively put a stranglehold on all Americans by not acting on our behalf with regard to pharmaceutical companies and prescription drugs .

Politicians, with the help of lobbyists and pharmaceutical companies, have created some of the largest profits ever recorded for these drug companies, in fact individual bonuses given out at these companies are typically higher than what most Americans make in any given year, while at the same time preventing Americans at every turn from securing lower cost prescription drugs .

Pharmaceutical companies charge pharmacists in the United States up to six times what they charge throughout Europe and other industrialized nations cause those countries with limits on pharmaceutical profitability . Price gouging by pharmaceutical companies in the United States needs to stop .

Our government and our representatives, should prevent drug companies from charging more in the United States than they do other countries, or take other actions like the examples below, to create drug affordability in the United States and not just for Medicare.

Potentially taxing pharmaceutical companies at a higher rate and refunding that money to the health care fund

Requiring pharmaceutical companies to sell drugs in the United States at the same price they sell to other industrialized countries

Remove or reduce the generous patent protection laws

Allow Americans to easily buy their medications outside of the United States

Require pharmaceutical companies to provide medication at no cost to any American Citizen with income less than $35,000.00

Health Insurance

Eliminate state to state licensing and have the Federal government take over the licensing of health insurance companies.

Sate Insurance Commissioner roles should change to be that of enforcement , auditing, process improvement , litigation and information .

The Federal government should manage a web site where every licensed insurer must post their rates for twelve to twenty different policies and coverages, once a year.

Allow, not mandate, individuals or companies to shop for insurance from that website. This can further help drive costs down because large companies could shop the web site also .

Allow individuals who purchase insurance from that website to score or rate insurance companies based on their performance once each year . Poor or mediocre performance would disallow the insurer from any Federal funding .

The Federal government should determine which of those policies would be available for low income individuals and what the subsidized rates would be . Qualifying individuals or families could choose from those plans.

The Federal government should use this 'web based public rate' system to purchase insurance for its employees

Eliminate all bias from purchasing or continuing health care coverage, that is , NO questions about preexisting conditions , age, sex or location -insurers should offer a package and if you can afford it you buy it - no questions asked. This will drive competition and force insurance companies to start driving costs out of the whole system .

Insurers may not single out any individual in order to charge them more than any other individual and they may not deny coverage to anyone who chooses to purchase a policy. Penalties for this type of discrimination shall be no less than $5 million 1 million of which should go into the denied purchasor and four million to the state insurance commission to find additional auditing and litigation is necessary .

Remove the comment that you'll be taxed by the IRS if you don't purchase insurance that means the government's qualifications . Down the road, this may be appropriate , but not when you're starting a new program touches every single citizen of the United States .

Create competition, use Medicare to negotiate lower drug costs across the board for all Americans

I am astonished at the amount of false information people are passing along here. The sad fact is that the US healthcare system is broken, it is NOT the best in the world (unless you have gobs & gobs of money) and it is responsible for the majority of bankruptcies in the US. AND broken hearts, AND too many suffering families... take it from me, first hand.

How is having a healthy nation that much different that having an educated nation? Perhaps the people posting here believe that the public education "option" should be ended.

When I read in these posts the fear that has been stirred up, by fear mongers and propagandists, it makes me sad for those of my fellow Americans who live with fear as their dominant emotion.

Just renewed my membership, BTW. Thanks AARP.

I was afraid AARP was going to be "bought" over to Obama's health plan.
The fact that not one person can tell us exactly what is in any one of the proposed health care plans (very similar to our federal tax codes) is scary enough! This will be left open for interuptation of the lawyers.
The benefits (?) will not start for a number of years but the fees will start to be collected as soon as the bill is in effect, continuing to burden our children and grandchildren.
FYI Obama has already established the 15 member board to oversee OUR medical rationing and has supplied the funding for this board and a director in the already approved stimulus package.
I do not trust Pelosi/Reid/Obama and I no longer trust AARP. My husband and I will no longer be members of AARP.

FYI If any of you are looking for an organization to replace AARP try 60 Plus Association (www.60plus.org).