A bombshell report by Chris Jacobs, the founder and CEO of Juniper Research Group, “How AARP Makes Health Insurance Unaffordable for Its Members,” exposes how AARP is working hand-in-hand with major insurer pharmacy benefit managers, chiefly its financial partner, UnitedHealth, to push for the costly extension of Obamacare subsidies amid the continuing resolution and government shutdown debate.
The report reveals how AARP recently received an extraordinary $9 billion payment as a result of restructuring its existing royalty agreement with UnitedHealth. Under the agreement, UnitedHealth was granted an exclusive license to use AARP’s trade name and intellectual property to market a specific health insurance program tied directly to their financial arrangement.
That $9 billion lump sum is equivalent to 31 times what AARP collects annually in member dues and more than four times its total operating revenues for 2024, which is a staggering figure that underscores a deep financial dependency between AARP and UnitedHealth for at least the next decade. It raises a fundamental question: When push comes to shove, who does AARP really serve?
AARP has actively lobbied to make the temporary COVID-era tax subsidies under the Affordable Care Act permanent, a policy that would cost taxpayers nearly $350 billion and funnel billions more directly to health insurance conglomerates, including UnitedHealth.
Billed initially as a pandemic emergency measure, these subsidies have become a poster child for government and corporate waste, fraud and abuse. The Affordable Care Act is anything but affordable.
Meanwhile, for years, AARP has remained silent on critical issues affecting older Americans, such as Medicare overcharges, pharmacy benefit manager pricing abuses, prior authorization delays, patient coverage denials, and more. Instead of demanding accountability from big insurer-PBMs, AARP has prioritized advocacy campaigns that conveniently avoid disrupting the profit streams of companies such as UnitedHealth. That’s no coincidence. Its multi-billion-dollar relationship severely compromises the integrity of AARP’s entire advocacy platform.
This financial entanglement creates a glaring conflict of interest, rather than championing reforms to lower healthcare costs for seniors — the group AARP claims to represent — the organization is protecting the profits it receives via UnitedHealth, the same company now under criminal investigation by the Department of Justice for allegedly overbilling Medicare. AARP has yet to publicly acknowledge or comment on the investigation, despite its brand being lent to UnitedHealth Medicare policies. Color me surprised.
The $9 billion UnitedHealth payout and AARP’s efforts to cement nearly half a trillion dollars in Obamacare subsidies during a government shutdown reveal a clear pattern: AARP is advancing the agenda of the big insurer cartels that bankroll it. With 9 billion reasons to side with UnitedHealth, AARP’s advocacy is serving corporate interests — not America’s seniors.
It’s time for everyone to ask: AARP advocates for whom, exactly?
