Well that was quick
Why on God’s green Earth did the AARP support ALEC of all things‽ The conservative agenda has been to punish average retirees for decades!
If this is like what happened to the Sierra Club a few years ago, it is the result of well-funded stealth candidates being elected to the board.
Good. I pay money to AARP, and I had no idea some of it went to ALEC.
My parents were ready to end their membership with AARP until they read this article saying that they will not renew their ALEC membership. Many of my parents friends were also going to quit AARP for this reason. I can’t imagine how AARP could belong to such a group such as ALEC who has written more legislation harmful to seniors as ALEC has.
Years ago, I saw the direction the AARP was headed and dropped my membership.
The letter also revealed that AARP said its “interest in supporting ALEC was to gain better access to legislators.”
Access for average voters who put those legislators into office?..not so much.
And you wonder why Trump is so popular with the “system is rigged” crowd? Because in part, he is correct.
AARP has been owned by United Health Group since 1998. They’re not an advocacy group for seniors anymore and they haven’t been for nearly two decades. They’re just a front for the health insurance industry that preys on seniors while claiming to represent them.
Scamming older folks is good business for AARP. Fuck them.
Consumer Reports recently rated United Health Care as the worst Medicare plan for seniors in Southern California.
Now if AARP would just stop snail-mail-SPAMMING me with all those god damned Insurance offers!
The membership is real cheap and I get a few discounts here and there. I was surprised when I got a few hundred bucks off a new car, so the membership is covered for a long time.
That’s been my only dealings with them.
Good thing ALEC has been chased out of another big organization.
I had no idea AARP was a supporter of ALEC. Disgusting. Can’t believe it took them this long to see the light, and they did it only after pressure was applied. Shameful AARP. ALEC has been trying to destroy the social safety net one fucked up law at a time, and AARP couldn’t see it until now? And those senior discounts…you can get them without AARP thank you very much…all you have to do is show your driver’s license or state ID most places.
AARP has shown itself to be a right wing reactionary organization over the years. I dropped my membership over a year ago after they published a self-ingratiating article about dubya, among the most horrible viciously stupid assholes on the planet. It still took me months to get off their email mailing lists since this incompetent bunch of haters has no control of their own email system but farms it out to an even more incompetent organization than AARP. AARP stinks to high heaven. I wasn’t surprised a bit these fascists belonged to ALEC. It probably still belongs to the KKK and John Birch Society.
Look at my comment elsewhere here where I address their spamming emails. Took me many months of haranguing them to finally be able to stop their bullshit emails. They have no control of their email spamming. AARP farms it out to another horrible outfit who is also clueless. I was enraged that their emails’ “Unsubscribe” function doesn’t work either. This fascist cell needs to be disbanded and exposed for what they are now: money grubbing capitalists, period.
I never joined, it was insulting when they sent me a card. I’ll decide when I am old not some profit driven organization. Although I wonder how much damage they have done over the years and how much poison they will leave in the pipeline that is ALEC? Seems to me too little too late, why would a seemingly benign group join in the first place if they weren’t inherently up to no good?
The whole idea of “private” Medicare plans is a ridiculous scam. Just read this:
http://truecostofhealthcare.net/medicare-supplemental-insurance/
As for United Health, they’re the worst of the worst.
I ditched aarp years ago! After finding out that they backed an alec attempt to privatize social security during the bush years.
aarp isn’t what you think it is! They’re like the gun lobby, all gop/bags and their agenda!
Your use of the word “owned” may be too strong. If AARP offers United Healthcare plans (and it does), thereby establishing an economic relationship, that’s one thing. But United Healthcare can’t “own” in the sense of managing/governing a nonprofit like AARP.
That doesn’t change the fact that AARP regularly screws up and doesn’t protect its constituents.
Also, looking at the Trustees page makes me scratch my head and wonder who these people are and how some of them have the money to afford ALEC memberships.