Last week, I detailed
the cozy relationship that AARP has developed with the Obama
administration. Today, the nation's largest organization of older
Americans has devoted the front page of its website to promoting
a
telephone town hall meeting with President Obama at 1:30. You
can register to attempt to ask a question
here.
The group already has a Q&A up trying to counter
legitimate
concerns about his proposals. A sample:
Why is AARP not standing up for seniors when Obama says
he will cut Medicare to help pay for health care?
The proposed changes to Medicare will help to get fraud, waste
and abuse out of the system and create payment incentives to
reward doctors and hospitals for the quality, rather than the
quantity, of care they provide. They will not cut the benefits
our members rely on in the traditional Medicare program, but
will help to keep it affordable to make sure you get the care
you need.
Isn’t this socialized medicine?
No. In socialized medicine the government directly owns the
hospitals and directly employs the doctors. No one in
Washington is talking seriously about anything like that. What
health reform will do instead is provide people with a system
much like the one members of Congress enjoy today. They will be
able to choose from a range of quality, affordable private
health plans, and possibly a publicly run option as well. These
plans will have to accept everyone regardless of preexisting
conditions or age. There also will be sliding-scale subsidies
for people with moderate to low incomes to make sure the
coverage is affordable for everyone.
If you can't tell much difference between the spin given by AARP
and what you hear from Obama himself, that's because there isn't
any. AARP has essentially turned the organization into a de facto
branch of the White House media operation. The group, which bills
itself as nonpartisan, has thrown its full weight behind Obama's
health care proposals even though they would slash Medicare
spending by $622 billion. As a conservative, of course, I'm all
for reining in entitlement spending, but this is a group that
spreads fear whenever Republicans try to do anything about the
issue, no matter how modest. As I previously noted, in 2006, when
Bush proposed far smaller Medicare cuts of $105 billion over 10
years, USA Today
quoted an AARP spokesman as saying, "The Congress, in an
election year, is not going to pass these disastrous
provisions."
