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AARP
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AARP, formerly the American Association of Retired Persons, is a United States-based non-governmental organization and interest group. According to its mission statement, it is "a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization for people age 50 and over ... dedicated to enhancing quality of life for all as we age," which "provides a wide range of unique benefits, special products, and services for our members." AARP operates as a non-profit advocate for its members and as one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the United States, and it also sells insurance, investment funds and other financial products.
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AARP, formerly the American Association of Retired Persons, is a United States-based non-governmental organization and interest group. According to its mission statement, it is "a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization for people age 50 and over ... dedicated to enhancing quality of life for all as we age," which "provides a wide range of unique benefits, special products, and services for our members." AARP operates as a non-profit advocate for its members and as one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the United States, and it also sells insurance, investment funds and other financial products. AARP claims over 35 million members, making it one of the largest membership organizations for people age 50 and over in the United States. Membership is expected to grow significantly as baby boomers age.
History
Dr. Ethel Percy Andrus founded AARP in 1958. AARP evolved from the National Retired Teachers Association (NRTA), which Andrus had established in 1947 to promote her philosophy of productive aging, and in response to the need of retired teachers for health insurance. After ten years, Andrus opened the organization to all Americans over 50, creating AARP. Today, NRTA is a division within AARP.
According to critics, until the 1980s AARP was controlled by businessman Leonard Davis, who promoted its image as a non-profit advocate of retirees in order to sell insurance to members. In the 1990s, the United States Senate investigated AARP's non-profit status, with Republican Senator Alan Simpson, then chairman of the Finance Committee's Subcommittee on Social Security and Family Policy, questioning the organization's tax exempt status in congressional hearings. These investigations did not reveal sufficient evidence to change the organization's status.
The organization was originally named American Association of Retired Persons, but to reflect that its focus had become broader than American retirees, in 1999 it officially changed its name to just "AARP" (pronounced one letter at a time, "A-A-R-P"). AARP no longer requires that members be retired.
Activities
AARP is widely known for addressing issues affecting older Americans through a multitude of initiatives, including lobbying efforts at the state and national governmental level, an activity permitted by its 501(c)(4) status. The organization claims that it is non-partisan and does not support, oppose or give money to any candidates or political parties. AARP's total revenue for 2006 was approximately $1 billion and it spent $23 million on lobbying.
AARP Services, Inc., founded in 1999, is a wholly owned subsidiary of AARP. AARP Services manages the wide range of products and services that are offered as benefits to AARP’s 40 million members. The offers span health products, travel and leisure products, and life event services. Specific products include Medicare supplemental insurance; member discounts on rental cars, cruises, vacation packages and lodging; special offers on technology and gifts; pharmacy services; legal services; and long-term care insurance. AARP Services founded AARP Financial Incorporated, a subsidiary that manages AARP-endorsed financial products including AARP Funds. AARP Services develops new products, manages and markets products and services, creates and maintains partnership and sponsorship relationships, and develops and manages AARP’s Web site, AARP.org.
AARP Services founded AARP Financial Incorporated, a subsidiary that manages AARP-endorsed financial products including AARP Funds.
The AARP Foundation is AARP’s affiliated charity. Foundation programs provide security, protection and empowerment for older persons in need. Low-income older workers receive the job training and placement they need to re-join the workforce. Free tax preparation is provided for low- and moderate-income individuals, with special attention to those 60 and older. The Foundation’s litigation staff protects the legal rights of older Americans in critical health, long-term care, consumer and employment situations. Additional programs provide information, education and services to ensure that people over 50 lead lives of independence, dignity and purpose. Foundation programs are funded by grants, tax-deductible contributions and AARP.
The organization also publishes AARP The Magazine (known until 2002 as Modern Maturity), a magazine focusing on aging issues. Established in 1958, the magazine, distributed bi-monthly, is sent to every AARP member, giving the free magazine a circulation AARP claims to be the "world's largest". AARP also publishes the AARP Bulletin, Segunda Juventud, Live & Learn, and has a books division.
The organization also produces radio and television programs. Prime Time Radio, hosted by veteran broadcaster Mike Cuthbert, is a one-hour weekly interview program that focuses on the wide-ranging interests and concerns of Americans 40 and older. The program is heard on radio stations across the country as well as on the web site. Prime Time Focus, hosted by Alyne Ellis, is a 90-second daily feature with a five-minute weekend edition heard on more than 500 stations. Movies for Grownups, a weekly 2-minute program hosted by AARP the Magazine Entertainment Editor Bill Newcott, is heard on stations nationwide and online at the radioprimetime website. Recent guests have included Julie Andrews, John Cleese, Ron Howard, Alfre Woodard, and Helen Hunt. The Movies for Grownups Awards (www.moviesforgrownups.org) are presented each February in Hollywood.
Health care
AARP's public stances influenced the United States Congress' passage of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act, which authorized the creation of Medicare Part D, in 2003, and also influenced the Congress' resistance to changes to Social Security in 2005. AARP also plans to address health care issues in their campaign targeting the 2008 elections with Divided We Fail.
Divided We Fail
In early 2007 AARP launched "Divided We Fail," designed to address health care and long-term financial security. The initiative was launched with Business Roundtable and the Service Employees International Union, and encompasses advertising in national outlets and in the primary states, online activities, and traditional grassroots work, in order to engage the public, business and elected officials in the debate, and to encourage public leaders to offer solutions, according to the AARP. Nancy LeaMond, executive officer for social impact, said, "We want to really get to these candidates and ask for action, answers and accountability on these questions."
In November 2007, the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) joined the Divided We Fail leadership.
The initiative uses an "elephonkey" mixed animal as its symbol, with the head and forelegs of the Republican elephant and the ears, hindquarters, and tail of the kicking Democratic donkey. "Champ" quickly became a recognizable symbol of the Divided We Fail initiative, fostered in part by television commercials that ran across the country. In addition, Divided We Fail Florida incorporated the initiative's mascot into an interactive educational vehicle, dubbed the "Champmobile," which traveled across the state and throughout the United States encouraging voters to "Let your voice be heard!"
Future Champions
In February 2007, AARP announced the launch of a new advertising campaign designed to address issues that will impact future generations and showcase the AARP brand. The campaign, called “Future Champions,” features children talking about the state of healthcare and financial security. The multigenerational focus is designed to reinforce the AARP's Divided We Fail coalition.
Health insurance
Approximately seven million people have AARP branded health insurance, including drug coverage and medigap, as of April 2007 and AARP earns more income from selling insurance to members than it does from membership dues. In 2008, AARP plans to begin offering several new health insurance products: An HMO for Medicare recipients, in partnership with UnitedHealth Group; and a PPO and "a high-deductible insurance policy that could be used with a health savings account" to people aged 50-64, in partnership with Aetna. AARP will likely become the largest source of health insurance for Medicare recipients, and AARP estimates the new products will increase its health insurance customers to 14 million by 2014. AARP is not an insurer and does not pay insurance claims. Instead, AARP allows its name to be used by insurance companies in the sale of insurance products, for which it is paid a commission like an insurance agent.
Criticism
In an editorial column in the Los Angeles Times, critic Dale Van Atta wrote that AARP
does unauthorized lobbying for its membership, and lobbies against the best interests of its membership.
Van Atta says that by lobbying for the above-mentioned Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act, AARP leaders betrayed the membership.
According to an Annenberg Public Policy Center report,
critics have said AARP had a conflict of interest in supporting the Act, because AARP “derives income from the sale of health and life insurance policies,” by licensing its brand to insurance dealers such as New York Life, and would benefit financially from passage of the legislation.
BusinessWeek magazine says that in the past questions have arisen about whether AARP's commercial interests may conflict with those of its membership,
and characterizes many of the funds and insurance policies that AARP markets as providing considerably less benefit than seniors could get on their own.
See also
Further reading
- Dale Van Atta, Trust Betrayed: Inside the AARP (Regnery Publishing,1998). ISBN 0-89526-485-4
- Charles R. Morris, The AARP: America's Most Powerful Lobby and the Clash of Generations (Crown, 1996). ISBN 0-8129-2753-2
- Peter G. Peterson, Will America Grow Up Before It Grows Old? How the Coming Social Security Crisis Threatens You, Your Family, and Your Country (Random House, 1996). ISBN 0-679-45256-7
External links
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- from Hoover's
- by the competing organization, 60 Plus Association
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- from OpenSecrets.org
- from the publication The American Prospect.
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