Founded in 1958 by Dr. Ethel Percy, the American
Association of Retired Persons (AARP) has been dedicated to
addressing the needs and interests of older Americans. Percy
felt that older Americans could attain a sense of satisfaction
and fulfillment by remaining physically and intellectually active
in society, thus came about his idea to form the AARP. The
AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization open to
anyone, working or retired, over the age of 50. Based in Wash-
ington, D.C., the AARP pursues its goals through service,
advocacy, and education. The AARP's ultimate goal is to help
older Americans achieve lives of independence, dignity, and
purpose. The AARP is spread nation wide through local chapters
and is run mainly by volunteer board members at the local and
national levels.
The 33 million members of the AARP can expect many
benefits as well as support from the AARP. The wide range of
services span anywhere from movie tickets to grants for re-
search. The AARP also has many publications in the form of
audio and publications. The most famous of these publications is
the bimonthly Modern Maturity which targets all readers inter-
ested in AARP issues.
The issues and goals the AARP advocates span a great deal
throughout the political, economic, and social arena. While
diverse in its areas of interest, the AARP mainly concentrates
on social issues. Being a nonpartisan organization, the AARP
does not nationally endorse or contribute any money to the
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campaigns of any candidate running for national positions
including presidency. Politics in the AARP is basically left to
the individual to decide whom he/she will support. The only
participation the AARP takes is through the AARP/VOTE program.
The goals of the AARP/VOTE program are to educate AARP members
and the general public about important economic, health and
consumer issues, and about the positions taken by candidates for
public office on these issues. They also inform candidates and
elected officials of AARP's positions on key policy issues and
help elected officials be more responsive to the needs of their
districts or states by promoting effective communication with
their constituents. AARP/VOTE is successful because of its
effective methods used to bring the candidate and constituent
closer together. They use techniques such as candidate forums
where the candidates visit local chapters, questionnaires that
candidates fill out, and voter registration drives. Besides the
AARP/Vote program, the AARP gets through political pressure from
the grass roots level by a well structured system of events.
This system of events can be summarized in four basic steps.
The first being Obtaining Member Input. This step involves the
local level members providing input about legislative issues of
concern in any area. The input is provided in form of
thousands of letters of concern which is reviewed by the
National Legislative Council of the AARP. If enough support for
an issue is found to be present among the majority of the
members then it goes on to the next step which is the Decision
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Making of the National Legislative Council and Board of
Directors. At this level, the National Council and Board of
directors decide which issues to support and include these new
issues into the AARP's federal and state policy agenda for the
year. The Council and Board interact with Congressional and
government leaders. Leaders read over and respond to the
AARP's policy and debate over issues of concern. Once revisions
are made to the policy agenda, a final draft is made and is
distributed in many forms to anyone interested. The third step,
Disseminating and Implementing Legislative Policy, includes
lobbying in Washington D.C. and testifying regularly on Capitol
Hill about the AARP's federal and state policy for that year.
While action is being taken in Washington, the AARP is also
educating members on the new policy. The final step would be
Ongoing Policy Analysis. At this level the AARP reviews and
analyses federal response policies to see if they are consistent
with AARP policy. Recommendations are logged into a working
draft of the upcoming year's policy book and the process of
interacting with the federal government starts all over again.
The AARP is concerned with economic issues such as the
financing of Social Security and Medicare, trust funds, the
federal deficit, and COLAs or Cost of Living Adjustments to
health care services. The AARP believes only modest changes
need to made to Social Security in order to keep it going into
the 21st century. The rising cost of health services is a
threat to Medicare and the AARP feels the solution is to get the
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nation's entire health care system under control. Another
reason why the AARP is so optimistic about Social Security is
because of trust funds. The trust funds are estimated to have
$460 billion in assets in 1995. Even if nothing is done to
strengthen Social Security, there is enough money to pay
benefits for 35 years. Modest changes will be needed to extend
the trust funds well beyond that time. With regards to the
federal deficit, the AARP is for the reduction of the deficit and
is willing to pay their share as long as it doesn't single out
and overburden older Americans for an unfair share of the cost.
Probably the most extreme position the AARP takes is on the
financing of health care reform. Their possible list of
solutions include payroll taxes, increase in income taxes, VAT or
value added taxes, and an excise tax on alcohol and tobacco.
Finally, the AARP feels the CPI or Consumer Price Index number
should consider the CPI-E or Consumer Price Index for the
Elderly when calculating the rate of inflation with the CES or
Consumer Expenditure Survey. The premise underlying a CPI-E is
that older people's purchasing patterns differ significantly from
the rest of the population, particularly those age 65 and older.
For example, older persons spend a larger share of their incomes
on medical care, and medical care prices are far out-pacing
general inflation. Therefore, a CPI-E could reflect a higher rate
of inflation; its use in COLA calculations would protect older
persons from rising medical costs.
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Finally, social issues that dominate the AARP include
transit for the elderly, fighting age discrimination, pro generic
drugs, general health care and home care reform, anti-mandatory
retirement, and the elderly and driving issues. To begin with,
the AARP advocates that federal, state and local governments
should consider the mobility needs of all citizens in
comprehensive transportation planning. Options such as vehicles
accessible by physically-disabled citizens, transportation
vouchers and other innovative transit services should be
considered. Also, private sector and community resources should
support local government transportation efforts. For example,
some AARP chapters and Retired Teachers Association (RTA) units
already sponsor special transportation systems at the local
level. Other civic organizations and businesses can do the same.
Such initiatives are becoming increasingly important in the
delivery of local transportation services. Third, innovative
transportation alternatives ,such as transit service routes and
safe pedestrian walkways with proximity to housing and
services, must be included in all community development
planning. The AARP is fighting age discrimination through
education, legislation, and litigation. Through education, the
AARP is making workers more aware of their rights under the law,
helping eliminate negative stereotypes about older workers, and
helping employers recognize the value and experience of older
workers. Through legislation, the AARP is urging Congress to
remove any exceptions to the law making it illegal to discriminate
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in employment on the basis of age. Litigation comes in the form
numerous "friend-of-the-court" briefs in significant cases
involving the interpretation of the ADEA. The AARP is pro
generic drugs mainly because Medicare does not cover outpatient
prescription drugs, which are the second largest out-of-pocket
health expense for older persons, after long-term care. They
don't feel consumers should pay more money for the same
product. On the issue of long term health care, the AARP feels
there is a need for strong reform. For more than three
decades, AARP has taken a leadership role on health and long-
term care issues, and considers health care reform a national
priority. AARP stands firmly for a system that provides high-
quality, affordable health and long-term care for all Americans.
Currently America's health care costs are skyrocketing out of
control. More than 37 million Americans have no health insurance
,one-fourth of them are children, and another 20 million are
underinsured. Two of the greatest health care needs for older
Americans, long-term care and prescription drugs, can be a
tremendous expense, and, unfortunately, many persons lack any
insurance coverage for these costs. With regards to the
national health care debate, although many different plans have
been proposed by the Democrats; to increase government control
and cut government spending on health care, and Republicans; to
privatize health care and cut spending on health care, the one
issue that the AARP is interested in, is one that will not
jeopardize the quality of health care in the U.S. Any such
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threat provokes action by the AARP. Another one of the major
goals of the AARP's nationwide health care campaign is the
development of a range of long-term care services that will
enable individuals to receive the help they need in the least
restrictive setting possible. This is known as home care.
Remaining at home helps many older persons maintain social ties
and involvement with the community and family and helps
preserve their sense of independence and security. It may also
help reduce the strain that excessive hospital or nursing home
bills can cause during a long-term illness or disability. The
AARP also advocates against laws that mandate early retirement.
They feel that individuals should be able to work as long as
they are willing and able to work. Letting older persons work
longer would also benefit Social Security and private pensions
by increasing the amount of contributions with more people
working and by delaying payments. Finally, the AARP stands
firmly against age-related driver testing. They say it is
discriminatory and isn't the solution to the elderly's driving
problems. The solution the AARP proposes is education. They
would like to educate the elderly more about driving as well as
having tougher tests when renewing driver's licenses. Another
suggestion is to have more conspicuous and highly visible road
signs. These ideas all together, says the AARP, would make
roadways safer for all drivers. Thus, through this small sample
of their large interest for social issues, one can get a better
idea how the AARP stands.
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Being a member of the AARP has it's many personal benefits
as well as having the satisfaction that as an older person, one
is still involved in society at the political, economic, and social
levels. The AARP has been around for 38 years strong, being
very effective and providing a solid voice for older Americans,
and its success so far will assure its survival into the 21st
century becoming one of the most well rounded organizations.
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