Welcome to Running: A FEVER. This is a show about fitness, diet, and medicine. My goal is to live a long, healthy, happy, active life right up to the very end. My name is Michael Davis.
Well, I recently got an email from my employer about a discount membership to AARP, the American Association of Retired Persons. It’s actually just AARP now. Approximately one-third of their members are not actually retired. We receive employee discounts on various items, and I receive these emails regularly. By the way, I’ve also been getting AARP invitations in the mail for years, probably since I turned 50. Although there is no minimum age for membership, they are “Dedicated to people over 50.” Well, I was offered a 43% discount, along with a free trunk organizer and a $10 Starbucks gift card. Wow!
I’ve wondered for quite a while just what AARP is and whether I should join. Is it a lobbying organization, or is it a healthcare cooperative? What is it, and is it worth joining? Will it help me achieve my goal of living a long, healthy, happy, and active life? Well, let’s take a deeper dive and look into this thing, whatever it is, and try to answer these questions.
What is AARP? It was founded in 1958 by Ethel Andrus, a retired teacher. At the time, 35% of people aged 65 and older lived in poverty. There was no Medicare. Some states had mandatory retirement ages, forcing people to leave jobs with health insurance benefits. Andrus worked with an insurance broker to develop group health insurance for teachers, and later all older Americans. Later, additional benefits were introduced, including driver safety courses and travel benefits. It also started a volunteer program for seniors.
On their website http://aarp.org, we find the statement “AARP empowers people to choose how they live as they age. More than 100 million Americans are 50 or older, and people want their money, health, and happiness to last as long as they do. We are a wise friend and fierce defender, focusing on the priorities of older Americans.
Fair enough. I also checked Wikipedia, where AARP is described as both an “interest group” and an “organization.” “It is an influential lobbying group in the United States. AARP sells paid memberships and markets insurance and other services to its members.”
So, it’s a lobbying organization; we’ve figured that out. And it sells stuff to its members. I’ve always been wary of lobbyists, but I suppose they have their place as long as there isn’t any corruption involved. I have heard that AARP is a very powerful lobbyist, which I suppose makes sense. They had more than 38 million members as of 2018. And if they are all paying dues, even at a discount, that funds a lot of DC lawyers for sure. In fact, in 1997, it was at the top of Fortune magazine’s list of the most powerful lobbying organizations.
Today, AARP makes more from AARP-branded insurance products than it does from membership dues. Its name is licensed to United Healthcare, which sells Medigap policies.
Officially, the organization’s tax status is that of a nonpartisan 501(c)(4) nonprofit. According to the IRS, that means it is a tax-exempt “social welfare organization.”
So I’m getting an idea of what it is, but what are the costs of membership, and what are the benefits?
Cost. There always seems to be a discount campaign going on. My employee discount was for $9 per year if I signed up for five years. The current rate offered on the website is $15 with auto-renewal, which is advertised as a 25% discount off the regular rate, which I suppose is $20—all in all, not a significant difference. Let’s say everybody pays an average of $15 per year. That’s an annual budget of $570 million, excluding revenue from the sale of insurance and other products. Sorry, I’m having trouble with the whole money thing. It’s pretty reasonable, depending on what you get.
So what do you get? What are the benefits of membership? First of all, you receive lobbying benefits. Though, as a non-member over 50, I presumably still get whatever benefits accrue from that. Some of their priorities are:
Safeguarding Social Security
Improving Health Care and Medicare
Reducing Prescription Drug Costs
Empowering Family Caregivers
Fighting Age Discrimination and Bias
Stopping Fraud
There is a section on the website with articles about various lobbying efforts. Here are some of the titles:
AARP Pushes Congress to Keep AM Radio in Cars
AARP Foundation Tax-Aide Helps You Deal With the IRS
Older Adults Want Real Representation from Hollywood
Make Tax Credit for Paid Family Leave Permanent, AARP Tells Congress
AARP Pushes States to Crack Down on Crypto ATMs
100 Reasons to Support Family Caregivers
You can download a 32-page benefit guide. Additionally, several benefits are described. A lot of these take the form of discounts from various companies, such as AT&T (save $10 per month), Budget Truck Rental (20% off Sunday through Thursday), Exxon Rewards (extra points on everyday purchases), Valvoline Instant Oil Change (15% off drive-through, stay-in-your-car oil changes), Trust & Will Estate Planning (20% discount on trusts, wills, and estate planning documents created online), lots of restaurant and hotel discounts, insurance, and many, many more.
Some benefits are free, though. Like online games (Mahjongg, Sudoku and others), AARP Theater (presumably streaming), movie and tv reviews, Staying Sharp (content about brain health, exercise videos, recipes), Medicare Resource Center (tips and guideance), AARP Magazine (bi-monthly, “the world’s largest circulation magazine”).
So, is AARP good or bad? What’s the bottom line? Well, I don’t think they’re bad. If you read the Wikipedia page, you’ll see a number of lobbying issues that led to members quitting in protest. And it’s been suggested that they have a conflict of interest when lobbying on Medicare issues while licensing their name to an insurance company, which, honestly, I’m surprised you can do as a nonprofit. But they were founded with good intentions anyway. And the real issue to me is whether the benefits are worth the cost of the membership.
I suspect most of the information products they offer are no better than what you could find in a Google search. Many of their articles are also available to non-members. I don’t travel a lot, so a lot of those discounts mean nothing to me. And how embarrassing is it to use a discount card in a restaurant? I don’t read magazines. I don’t wish to support lobbyists. So to me, it’s not worth it. Nuff said.
What do you think about all this? Do you like AARP or not? Are you a member? I would love to read your comments, so please don’t hesitate to leave some. I look forward to reading them. Until then, remember, if you have the fever, keep it burning. And if you don’t, catch the fever. And I will see you next time on Running: A FEVER.
References:
http://aarp.org
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AARP
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobbying
https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/other-non-profits/social-welfare-organizations