Is AARP selling its members down the river?

For months, President Obama has been promoting his health care plan, and proposing to pay for it by, among other things, squeezing billions of dollars out of Medicare.  And AARP, looking more and more like an arm of the DNC than an advocate for its members, has been backing the president’s plan.

So this week, the president held yet another in a seemingly endless series of town hall meetings to promote his plan, but, this time the meeting was with AARP.  I suppose it should have come as no surprise to the president that seniors, given all they have heard, would be concerned about things like rationing, reduced benefits, and “end of life” counseling.  The surprise though to many AARP members is that AARP doesn’t seem to share those concerns.

I’ve linked to an article, not necessarily because it is “the truth, the whole truth, and, nothing but the truth”, but because of the comments section below the article.  It is not only me that is questioning AARP’s motives, but AARP members as well.

But, back to the AARP town hall meeting, and the president’s attempt to allay seniors’  fears.

Mr. Obama said the Medicare cuts will be targeted at wasteful spending, such as overpayments to insurance companies that participate in private Medicare plans, as well as unnecessary hospital readmissions.

Were I on Medicare, and, at that town hall meeting, I wouldn’t find that statement particularly comforting.  I would have raised my hand to ask, “Why can’t you do that now, Mr. President?  Does it take an act of Congress for our government to stop wasteful spending?”  In response, the President would probably have spoken about red pills and blue pills, and unnecessary removal of tonsils, but I’m  fairly confident that I wouldn’t have gotten an answer.

The answer, to me,  is simple, Mr. President.  You can’t cut $250 to $500 billion in Medicare spending over 10 years when you are simultaneously adding millions of “baby boomers” to the Medicare rolls, without reducing payments to health care providers.  Reduced payments means fewer and fewer health care providers will accept Medicare.  And, fewer and fewer health care providers means longer and longer wait times to see a doctor.

Mr. President, is it too much to ask that you be honest with the American public?  And, AARP, is it too much to ask that you be honest with your members?