Medicare Is a Lifeline — AARP Is Fighting to Protect It

Nancy LeaMond

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Published July 15, 2025

For nearly 60 years, Medicare has been the cornerstone of health and financial security for millions of older Americans. It’s a fundamental promise: after a lifetime of hard work, you’ll be able to get the care you need, when you need it.

At AARP, we’re fighting every day to make sure that promise is kept.

Whether it’s hospital coverage, doctor visits, prescription drugs, or preventive care, Medicare is essential to helping older Americans live healthier, more independent lives. But the system isn’t perfect, and as health care evolves, so must Medicare. That means protecting what works, fixing what doesn’t, and ensuring every part of the program is delivering for the people it’s meant to serve.

Protecting Medicare’s Foundation

We’re working to strengthen traditional Medicare — including its core benefits and long-standing consumer protections. That includes pushing to lower what people have to pay out-of-pocket and ensuring timely access to care.

AARP is also fighting for Medicare to cover the whole person — from head to toe. That means adding dental, hearing, and vision benefits. Increasingly, private insurers cover these services because they understand that it doesn’t make sense to simply ignore some parts of the body. It’s time for traditional Medicare to catch up, closing that gap so all older adults have access to comprehensive care.

We also worked to lower prescription drug prices by giving Medicare the power to negotiate with drug companies — a historic win that AARP helped deliver — and we’re fighting to make sure those savings grow in the years ahead.

Protecting Consumers in Medicare Advantage

Today, more than half of Medicare enrollees are in Medicare Advantage — private plans that are paid by the government to provide Medicare benefits. For many, these plans offer flexibility and extra benefits. But too often, people aren’t getting the care they signed up for.

Older Americans across the country experience:

Denials of care that delay or block needed treatment
Limited provider networks, especially in rural and underserved areas
Deceptive marketing tactics that confuse or mislead older adults into the wrong plan
Complicated prior authorization processes that act as a barrier to timely care

AARP is pushing for stronger consumer protections in Medicare Advantage because people should get the health care they earned. That includes holding agents and brokers accountable for misleading practices, improving provider networks, and making the prior authorization process faster, fairer, and more transparent. And, we are proud to once again support the bipartisan Improving Seniors’ Timely Access to Care Act, introduced by Sens. Marshall (R-KS) and Warner (D-VA) in the Senate and Reps. Kelly (R-PA), DelBene (D-WA), Joyce (R-PA), and Bera (D-CA) in the House - that would enact a number of provisions aimed at protecting Medicare Advantage enrollees from inappropriate prior authorization denials.

Cracking Down on Waste and Abuse

Keeping Medicare strong means making every dollar count. And let’s be clear – those are our dollars. Like Social Security, American workers pay for Medicare with every single paycheck, and then when you sign up for Medicare, all but the lowest income seniors pay premiums for their care.

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Unfortunately, some questionable Medicare Advantage practices lead to inflated payments that drive up costs without improving care. One example is what’s known as "upcoding." Today, Medicare Advantage incentivizes insurers to exaggerate and report more diagnoses, making enrollees appear sicker than they really are which, in turn, triggers higher government payments. These tactics divert funds away from patient care, increase premiums, strain the system, and undermine trust in Medicare itself.

That’s why AARP supports the bipartisan No UPCODE Act, introduced by Senators Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR). This bill would crack down on inflated payments by:

Requiring two full years of diagnostic data (not just one) to better reflect a person’s true health status;
Limiting the use of old, unrelated, or inaccurate diagnoses when determining how much insurers are paid;
Ensuring that only relevant medical conditions drive Medicare payments; and,
Closing loopholes that let Medicare Advantage plans game the system — and aligning risk assessments more closely with how they’re done in traditional Medicare.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates this bill could save taxpayers $124 billion over 10 years. At AARP, we want those savings to be reinvested into making Medicare stronger, not used for other spending priorities.

Older Americans have earned a Medicare program that is efficient, honest, and focused on health — not profits. The No UPCODE Act is a critical step toward protecting the long-term sustainability of Medicare while ensuring that funds go where they’re needed most: toward delivering real care.

One Medicare, One Mission

When it comes to Medicare, AARP’s mission is simple: ensure that it works for everyone — whether you’re in traditional Medicare or a Medicare Advantage plan. That means making the program stronger, simpler, and more affordable. It means defending Medicare from harmful cuts and fighting for improvements so the millions of Americans who have paid in with every paycheck know that they’ll be able to see a doctor, afford their prescriptions, and live with dignity as they age.

Medicare is one of our country’s greatest success stories — and with smart reforms and strong advocacy, AARP is working to make sure it stays that way for today’s older adults and generations to come.

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