ObamaCare waiver now given to AARP after they spent millions lobbying for its passage

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AARP is largest seller of MediGap plans which received the waiver

5/23/11, "Big Surprise: AARP Joins Waiver-gate," IBD editorial

"The seniors group that lobbied heavily for ObamaCare and stands to profit handsomely from it now has its own waiver. As the White House picks winners and losers, AARP wins and the rest of us lose.

Although not specifically mentioned by name in the rate review rules finalized last Thursday by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the rule that exempts Medigap insurance providers is clearly designed to benefit the largest seller of such policies and the biggest lobbyist for ObamaCare — the American Association of Retired Persons.

So you can add AARP to the list of favored unions, corporations, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi's constituents and even entire states such as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's Nevada that have received exemptions or waivers from various requirements of ObamaCare.

AARP will deny its role as lobbyist, but President Obama once told a town meeting in Portsmouth, N.H., "We have the AARP on board because they know this is a good deal for our seniors." AARP gave a large contribution to the $121 million advertising campaign pushing it and spent millions more lobbying wavering senators and congressmen on Capitol Hill.

A recent report released by GOP members on the House Ways and Means Committee, "Behind The Veil: The AARP America Doesn't Know," says AARP may have been on board simply because it was a good deal for the organization, as well as a good investment.

That report also documented how ObamaCare would produce a billion-dollar windfall for AARP by forcing millions of seniors to lose or drop their Medicare Advantage plans they were promised they could keep, plans that were the only real competition to the Medigap policies AARP provides or endorses for a fee.

The millions forced by ObamaCare to lose the Medicare Advantage coverage will result, the report said, "in a massive migration of seniors to Medigap plans. AARP is the nation's leading provider of Medigap plans and has a contract in which AARP financially gains for every additional Medigap enrollee." Cha-ching!

Medigap policies are insurance supplements designed to cover health costs Medicare won't cover.

When private insurers began raising their rates in anticipation of ObamaCare's impact, Democratic Sens. Reid, John Kerry and Max Baucus wrote a letter complaining to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius about it.

"While Medicare Advantage premiums are declining, we are hearing disturbing stories from beneficiaries across the country about excessive premium increases for Medigap supplemental insurance policies," the group wrote to Sebelius last October.

That plea evidently fell on deaf ears as HHS exempted Medigap providers, the largest of which is AARP, from ObamaCare oversight rules that require others who sell insurance policies to justify their rate increases and comply with rules

• requiring minimum profits and maximum health care payments.

"It's payoff time to the AARP (some call it bribery) for selling out seniors and endorsing ObamaCare, an awful proposal which makes no sense to seniors who know it's bad medicine for them," Jim Martin, chairman of 60 Plus, the conservative counterpart to AARP, said in a statement.

Fearful of the consequences of the hundreds of billions ObamaCare would cut out of Medicare, and angry about AARP's support for the health care overhaul, at least 60,000 seniors tore up and mailed back their AARP membership cards in 2009, reported CBS News.

The amount AARP will gain from ObamaCare, with cost-effectiveness mandates that will lead to rationed care, less medical innovation and health care decisions made by bureaucrats rather than doctors and patients,

• is staggering.

Equally staggering is the brazenness exhibited by the Obama administration and the beneficiaries of what can only be called

• crony health care."

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Elected Republicans love ObamaCare as much as Obama does. Every day should have been spent undoing damage that has already been done by it. By not beginning the long task, they further prove their contempt for America and the American middle class-the only group that will be adversely affected by ObamaCare. ed.

via Lucianne.com