An Important Message for All Senior Citizens - Is the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) Selling Out Seniors to Support the President's Healthcare Plan?In what appears to be an act of desperation, or maybe deception, the AARP seems to be engaging in a "throw out the baby with the bath water" mentality in its actions to lobby Congress for a more effective national healthcare program. Unfortunately, AARP may have temporarily forgotten its primary mission, namely to act in the best interests of senior citizens. Now, they want their members to sign petitions and send letters to Congress and others to support healthcare reform. But what kind of "reform"? They don't say. While this may be a commendable vision, what the AARP fails to recognize is that the Obama administration comprises some of the most politically radical individuals ever to run the central government in the history of this nation; and his healthcare plan is destine to fail, but not before it destroys the medical services industry in this country. The latest AARP Policy Book (2009-2010), Chapter 7 is devoted to healthcare issues. Many of the policy statements on health care in this chapter are meaningful and well stated, but it may represent nothing more than pure rhetoric, unless AARP uses it "political might" to tell the President and the members of Congress what they, AARP, demand for all Americans, especially its 40 million members, who demand protection of the existing Medicare benefits and programs. The only thing the Congress knows and understands is the full force of hard-ball political action. In depth stories on the future of healthcare in America in the AARP Bulletin, like all of the other "get nothing done" rhetoric one hears daily on numerous conservative talk shows that results in distracting the people from direct involvement. All that rhetoric is symbolic of a "Nero fiddling while Rome burns" philosophy. Some of us believe that the Obama administration encourages all of this rhetoric to keep the people occupied while Congress jams down the throats of the American people a healthcare plan designed to destroy the private insurance market at astronomical costs to the taxpayers-mainly the 1% of the taxpayers who are carrying 50% of the tax burden. AARP must play political hard ball with members of Congress who will be designing and voting on a comprehensive healthcare bill, crafted in secret that will prove to be contrary to the best interests of all seniors, let alone the nation as a whole. AARP must declare publicly, via all available media outlets, exactly what it is doing and who they are targeting in Congress to protect its 40 million member senior citizens. The AARP silence currently is deafening! President Obama said something at his White House healthcare briefing in June that offers a disturbing hint of our future under his vision of health reform that should have invoked an immediate and loud public response from AARP. He suggested one way to save costs is not to spend on procedures that evidence show is not necessarily going to improve care for the sick and dying. "Maybe you're better off not have surgery, but taking a painkiller" the President said. Maybe. But the question is, who decides? Now the latest declaration by President Obama is that seriously ill persons should seek Hospice as an alternative to surgery or hospitalization. This is "geriatric genocide" within every meaning of that term. Here is what Former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich had to say about the President's Healthcare Plan, "First of all, at the Center for Health Transformation we have established a petition drive that says if they do pass a public plan, that every member of Congress and every congressional staffer should be required to get their health insurance in that public plan. If they're going to impose something on the rest of us, they ought to have to suffer with the same thing they're trying to do to us." "Second, as a matter of principle we are deeply opposed to that kind of public plan, because it's frankly the first step toward a national health insurance program like Britain or Canada. Further, he said, "The fact is, the government will cheat. The government will subsidize and create special rules. The government will enroll people automatically. They will inevitably crowd out every private sector competitor, and we'll end up with the whole country in a bureaucratic-led, government-run, red-tape-ridden system." "We believe it's much better to give people the ability, through tax credits, through vouchers, and through tax deductions, to buy health insurance, but to have a competitive market with many different choices so you are in control of your healthcare." He went on to say, "I think people who have experienced the kind of long waiting lines, the lack of access to specialized care, the lack of access to the most modern drugs and the most modern technology, generally feel that while there are many things we should do to improve the American system, going to a government bureaucratic model is not one of them." As for the healthcare rationing that many opponents of a government-run system fear, Gingrich declared: "I think the basic moral principle of having a bureaucrat decide what your mother or your daughter or your granddaughter should get in healthcare is profoundly wrong. "The bureaucrat has no risk involved. They can make cruel and arbitrary decisions." Gingrich also said his bipartisan organization has been talking to both Democratic and Republican members of Congress about healthcare reform, and added: "We really believe it's possible to put together a coalition of common sense, practical people who want to get to a bipartisan solution." AARP should use all of its financial and political resources to demand that the Congress protect the interests of senior citizens who are enrolled in the Medicare Program, the Medicare drug prescription program, with supplemental insurance through a private insurance carrier such as that offered by AARP through United Healthcare. If the evidence begins to show any effort on the part of AARP to sell out current and future senior citizens in support of an Obama national healthcare program, seniors need to make their voices heard loud and clear to that organization, as well as, their Congressional representatives. It is well known that "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely". President Obama, Speaker of the House Nancy D'Alessandro Pelosi and the Democrats in both Houses of Congress believe they have absolute power to do whatever they want, and the "people be damned". Now is the time for everyone, especially senior citizens to let AARP know how they feel. The following link will allow you to express your concerns and ask questions about the AARP legislative priorities on national healthcare initiatives. http://www.aarp.org/about_aarp/contact/a2003-01-28-contact-issuesform.html Lastly, I hope that you will see fit to forward this message to all of your friends and business associates. Paul J. Marino, JD. - Florida
|