Did AARP Read the Bill?

Dennis Smith / November 05, 2009

AARP has endorsed the Pelosi health bill, H.R. 3962, but in reviewing the list of ten reasons it has given for its support and comparing those reasons to the bill itself, its advocacy for the legislation seems misplaced. There is a massive disconnect between several of the reasons for support and the bill itself. The inconsistencies include:

1. Protecting and strengthening Medicare—the bill cuts Medicare payments to providers including hospitals, nursing homes, and home health agencies which AARP historically has not viewed as protecting the program. Moreover, the bill does not use the savings for the purpose of extending the Medicare Trust Funds but rather spends the money elsewhere.
2. Improving Medicare’s payments to doctors—the proposal simply puts more money into a flawed price control system in which the lowest performing doctor gets paid the same as the highest performing doctor. Moreover, 25 percent of the cost of the increase in doctor payments will get passed onto AARP members. The costs due to the bill’s failure to reform the Medicare payment system will be passed on to seniors. (more…)