[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 143 (Tuesday, October 6, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H10492-H10493]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                AARP: HELPING SENIORS OR HELPING ITSELF?

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, when seniors across the country 
found out that the Medicare plan that was proposed by my colleagues on 
the other side of the aisle was going to cut Medicare and Medicare 
Advantage by $500 billion over 10 years, they became very concerned, 
and they became very, very concerned about the organization called AARP 
supporting that plan that was going to make great cuts to seniors' 
medical coverage.
  And so about 60,000 of those people said they were going to quit AARP 
because of AARP's endorsement of the very costly and benefit-cutting 
plan proposed by the Democrats. So AARP came out with this statement: 
``None of the health care proposals being considered by Congress would 
cut Medicare benefits or increase your out-of-pocket costs for Medicare 
services.''
  That's what AARP has been telling their seniors. But let me just read 
to you the facts from people who are working on the bills here in 
Washington, D.C., in the Congress.
  The first one is the $113 billion is a reduction in the extra 
benefits, the added, additional benefits that Medicare Advantage 
enrollees have available to them. That statement was made by a staff 
member of Senator Baucus's committee, the Finance Committee in the 
Senate. That contradicts what AARP said.
  The Medicare Advantage cuts contained in the Democrats' health bills 
pending in Congress ``could lead many plans to limit the benefits they 
offer, raise their premiums, or withdraw from the program.'' That 
statement was made by our Congressional Budget Office. Again, they 
refute what AARP said.
  The next statement, ``While these programs need to be made more 
efficient, if the proposed funding cut levels become law, millions of 
seniors and disabled individuals could lose many of the important 
benefits and services that Medicare Advantage health plans make so 
valuable.'' That statement was by Humana.
  Humana is an organization that sells these plans, the Medicare 
Advantage plans, and they have been stopped because they told their 
enrollees what was going on with the Medicare Advantage cuts in the 
Democrats' proposals. As a matter of fact, late last month the Centers 
for Medicare and Medicaid

[[Page H10493]]

Services, CMS, directed Medicare Advantage plans to discontinue any 
communication with their enrollees about this thing that is taking 
place cutting their benefits.

                              {time}  2000

  This is absolutely terrible. There's no doubt that Medicare Advantage 
is going to be cut. The Republicans in the House have pointed out time 
and again that the Democrats' plan in this body will cut Medicare 
Advantage and other benefits of Medicare by over $500 billion. In the 
Senate it runs anywhere from $200 billion on up. We don't know how much 
because we've never even seen their final bill. It hadn't come out of 
committee, so we really don't know. But I can tell seniors this: They 
are going to lose benefits. They're going to lose Medicare Advantage. 
And so why is AARP saying that there's no change going to take place if 
we pass these plans?
  It's because they have a benefit that they're going to get if 
Medicare Advantage is cut. And what is that benefit? They sell what's 
called Medigap, and Medigap coverage is more expensive than the 
Medicare plans we're talking about. And so they would get a tremendous 
kickback. Let me just tell you what it says here. There was an article 
written in Bloomberg, and the article said very clearly that the AARP 
is getting $652 million a year in royalties and fees. That's an 
increase of 31 percent over last year when they got about $500 billion.
  And according to Bloomberg, the analysis published in December 2008, 
those royalties comprise 60.3 percent of what AARP gets. And if we do 
away, this body and the other body, does away with Medicare Advantage 
and seniors want more coverage, they're going to have to go to Medigap. 
That's sold by AARP, and AARP will be the beneficiary, and that's why 
60,000 seniors have left AARP, because they don't want this to happen.
  Let me just read to you what a couple of seniors said after they 
found out about this. One said, AARP has great buying power, and people 
should be able to get the best deal. What they're doing is 
unconscionable, what AARP has allowed to happen. Another disillusioned 
senior wrote to the organization's leadership and asked whether AARP 
had a special relationship with insurance carriers by which it receives 
commissions and kickbacks. And it does. Seniors need to know that 
Medicare and Medigap is going to take the place of Medicare Advantage. 
There's going to be big cuts.

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