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Welcome to the AARP Discussion Board. Here you can talk with peers about current events ranging from Social Security to caring for your parents to the latest on health care reform. It is also the perfect place to exchange healthy eating recipes and job hunting tips.
These forums are for you to engage and have fun meeting new people. Just remember the community code: Be nice!
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AARP and It's Self-Serving Agenda
posted at March 16, 2012 7:12 PM EDT
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Re: AARP and It's Self-Serving Agenda
posted at March 18, 2012 10:12 AM EDT
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Posts: 957
First: September 16, 2011 Last: May 26, 2013 |
Dear Dear jvcleve2, You are correct that the program is still in transition, and has yet to play out. You can find some more information on the new health care laws here: Have you read this article? http://www.aarp.org/health/health-care-reform/info-01-2011/health_law_benefits_2011_and_to_come.html |
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Re: AARP and It's Self-Serving Agenda
posted at March 21, 2012 8:14 PM EDT
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Posts: 1
First: March 21, 2012 Last: March 21, 2012 |
In Response to AARP and It's Self-Serving Agenda: If you are very afraid, I would like to offer some helpful suggestions. I suggest that you inform yourself by reading factual studies - I find that very helpful myself in reducing fearfulness. In general, I find fear to be based on lack of knowledge, and a sense of lack of ability to influence your future. AARP has some good fact sheets out on why they support the current Affordable Care Act. It also helps to call it by its appropriate name, which is not Obamacare, but the Affordable Care Act. If you use the appropriate name, you might actually find out some real facts about the program. I recommend looking at some of the studies by the Congressional Budget Office. They explain where the $500 million in savings from Medicare come from. A large amount comes from ending excess payments to insurance companies under the Medicare Advantage plans - money that went strictly to insurance companies and did not result in lower premiums to seniors. In spite of the law, Medicare premiums didn't really go up last year, so I'm not seeing any negative impacts yet. There are also proposals to do things more efficiently in Medicare. We cannot afford Medicare as it is currently run, and that is a fact. Therefore, we have to include improvements somehow, and if you think the marketplace insurance base industry is going to take care of seniors, think again. I'm not putting my trust in that. Also, if all Americans get insurance coverage, premiums for elderly should go down because insurance companies will have more people overall in their risk pools. I don't like being singled out as a senior - I'd like to be part of an overall population health plan that covers you from youth to old age. If you don't take the time to inform yoursel properly, please don't weigh in to confuse other people and derail progress. I'm very happy to report that I got a completely free colonoscopy this year because of the Affordable Care Act, and that my brother is able to cover his daughter under his insurance while she is in college because of the Affordable Health Care Act. That means a lot to him as a senior, too. |
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Re: AARP and It's Self-Serving Agenda
posted at April 2, 2012 5:37 PM EDT
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Re: AARP and It's Self-Serving Agenda
posted at April 3, 2012 11:42 AM EDT
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Posts: 11
First: March 16, 2012 Last: April 4, 2013 |
In Response to Re: AARP and It's Self-Serving Agenda: Dear Dear jvcleve2, You are correct that the program is still in transition, and yas yet to play out. You can find some more information on the new health care laws here: Have you read this article? http://www.aarp.org/health/health-care-reform/info-01-2011/health_law_benefits_2011_and_to_come.html Posted by BettyCM Thank you for asking...yes, I have read it. However, I am intensly cynical abouit it as it is composed, written and submitted by the AARP editors, hardly an impartial source. My cynicism eminates from their (AARP) insistence that the program (ACA) was a good new program at the expense of the heretofore successful Medicare program. I repeat, to raid the Medicare budget by $500 billion dollars over 10 years is irresponsible in light of the fiscal reform needed in the medicare program itself. The $500 billion is allegedly to come from reduced fraud and abuse in the current Medicare system. The government has been unable to control fraud and abuse in the 47 years since the inception of Medicare so it is justifiable to be acutely skeptical. It now turns out that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has revised its estimate of cost of (ACA) over ten years upwardly from $950 billion to 1.85 trillion. This is alarming!!! It also turns out that the entire 2 year effort may be for naught if the legislation is found to be in violation of the enumerated powers afforded the Congress by the US Constitution. I call that "Govermental Incompetence!" Respectfully, JC |