AARP: Thank You For Your Support of Us and OCare & By The Way We're Raising Your Healthcare 8-13% Because of OCare

The AARP rewarded their employees for their support of them and Obamacare by raising their healthcare 8-13% due to a rise in medical costs due to…you guessed it…Obamacare:

WASHINGTON – AARP's endorsement helped secure passage of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. Now the seniors' lobby is telling its employees their insurance costs will rise partly as a result of the law.

In an e-mail to employees, AARP says health care premiums will increase by 8 percent to 13 percent next year because of rapidly rising medical costs.

And AARP adds that it's changing copayments and deductibles to avoid a 40 percent tax on high-cost health plans that takes effect in 2018 under the law. Aerospace giant Boeing also has cited the tax in asking its workers to pay more. Shifting costs to employees lowers the value of a health care plan and acts like an escape hatch from the tax.

"Most plan co-pays and deductibles have been modified," Jennifer Hodges, AARP's director of compensation and benefits, wrote employees in an Oct. 25 e-mail. "Plan value changes were necessary not only from a cost management standpoint but also to ensure that AARP's plans fall below the threshold for high-cost group plans under health care reform."

AARP officials said medical inflation is the main reason employee costs will be going up. The health care law is "a small part," said David Certner, legislative affairs director.

Those in the AARP and seniors in general were very skeptical of the healthcare overhaul, especially regarding a potential rise in medical costs, when it was being debated earlier this year, but the AARP leaders told them not to worry. Now, just a few short months since it was passed, those skeptics have been proven right.
Here’s a link to a video where AARP reps were trying to convince their dues-paying members, at a convention in Dallas, that Obamacare is A-OK. As you can imagine, things did not go well.

Look Who's Getting Porkulus Money: AARP Sells Out Seniors For $18 Million

After hesitating to endorse Obamacare because of the majority of its constituents are against it, seniors have been fleeing the left-leaning organization in droves. Now, we have found out why they would throw grandma and grandpa under the bus for Obamacare:

AARP, which has given its full-throated support to Democratic health care legislation even though seniors remain largely opposed, received an $18 million grant in the economic stimulus package for a job training program that has not created any jobs, according to the Obama administration's Recovery.gov website.

The Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP), according to the website, is "a work training program for unemployed mature workers who are 55+ and are at or below 125% of the poverty guidelines." So far, $6.5 million has been spent on the program, and it has not reported creating any jobs.

Not only did they benefit from the passage of the Porkulus bill, they, also, seem to benefit Obamacare, as well:

As it turns out, AARP is also in a position to benefit financially if the health care legislation passes, because seniors losing benefits as a result of cuts to Medicare Advantage will be forced to buy Medigap policies, which is the main source of AARP revenue.

The chief executive of the AARP, Byron Rand, definitely as an ulterior motive behind his organization's endorsement of a plan that raises costs and lowers the quality of care for seniors, the people that he is supposed to represent and do what is in their best interest.

Video: Seniors Flee Liberally-Minded AARP For More Conservative ASA Amidst Health Care Debate

As I reported "earlier," seniors are becoming incresingly wary of Obamacare. AARP a well-known liberal organization has "paying the price" for Obamacare:

CBS News reports that the AARP’s dance with ObamaCare has produced real results for the senior advocacy group — really bad results.  Over 60,000 members have left the AARP, angered by the group’s support for Barack Obama’s health-care reform efforts and silence on cuts to Medicare that will pay for them.  Many have joined a new group with a more conservative outlook on health-care reform.

While the AARP has benn careful not to endorse Obama's plan, they haven't come close to being too critical of it either. Many seniors worry about the cuts to Medicare and the cost of the program on their grandkids. Those that are fleeing don't feel like the organization that has been around since the late 50's is accurately representing them anymore.

The American Seniors Association, the "conservative alternative" to the AARP for seniors is reaping the benefits. It'll be good to give seniors an alternative to the increasingly liberal AARP.

Obama: AARP Wants Obamacare; AARP: Um, No, We Don't

Obama put his foot squarely in his mouth, yet again:

At the town hall in Portsmouth, N.H., Obama said, "We have the AARP onboard because they know this is a good deal for our seniors." He added, "AARP would not be endorsing a bill if it was undermining Medicare."

However, the AARP president had a distinctly different story to tell::

But Tom Nelson, AARP's chief operating officer, said, "Indications that we have endorsed any of the major health care reform bills currently under consideration in Congress are inaccurate."

Like Obama, AARP wants action this year to cover the uninsured and restrain health care costs, but the organization has refrained from endorsing legislation. Nelson said AARP would not endorse a bill that reduces Medicare benefits.

As seniors become increasingly wary of Obamacare's impact on their personal medical care, the AARP, normally a liberal ally, has been reluctant to sign on to the Democrats' current bill 100%.

As a side comment on something Obama said in that town hall:

"Where we do disagree, let's disagree over things that are real, not these wild misrepresentations that bear no resemblance to anything that's actually been proposed," he said. "Because the way politics works sometimes is that people who want to keep things the way they are will try to scare the heck out of folks, and they'll create boogeymen out there."

Obama, those that want to drastically change things try to "scare the heck" out of people, too. Just take a look at Boxer, the Goracle,or maybe even look in a mirror.