This bill would make great strides for all of our members and their families….”
AARP said July 14, as House Committees prepared to review and amend the health care overhaul bill in the House which contains nearly $500 billion in Medicare cuts.

Last week, the Senate Finance Committee passed its version of health reform, and so, it appears, that the health care battle will continue to chug along with cuts to Medicare that will affect up to 14 million seniors across the country (14,000 in Washington State) and force them off of much-needed supplemental coverage providing them with critical benefits, such as prescription drugs.

Why would a seniors’ advocacy group support such drastic cuts to Medicare? It simply does not add up.

On September 21, I sent a letter to AARP requesting an explanation for its support for health care legislation, which contains provisions to cut Medicare and Medicare Advantage.

They responded on October 1, and yet my questions remain unanswered. While they state that AARP “would gladly forgo every dime of revenue to fix the health care system,” AARP continues to run ads touting Medigap plans that will remain seniors’ only option after the proposed House legislation cuts Medicare and Medicare Advantage by $500 billion. And while they stated that “AARP is not an insurance company,” 38 percent of AARP’S annual total operating revenue came from United HealthCare, but simply 23 percent of total operating revenue came from membership dues.

And while they state that “AARP has not endorsed any of the pending bills,” their support of these proposals is clear.

When I was in law enforcement, I often sat in a room for hours with a subject, asking questions to figure out the facts. And if a question wasn’t answered, we continued to ask until we reached a sensible conclusion.

Late last week, I reached out again to clarify the questions they didn’t clearly answer, and I will continue to question them, and work with them until I find answers for the seniors in my district and across the country.

So often during the health care debate we’ve heard: “If you like it, you can keep it.” But who’s heard of this significant exception: “unless you’re a senior with a Medicare health plan”?

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office predicts that 3 million seniors will lose their Medicare health plan coverage and 3 million fewer seniors will enroll in such a plan if the current bill passed through the Ways and Means Committee, H.R. 3200, becomes law.

With a large senior constituency and an array of health insurance products to sell, there’s a lot at stake for AARP in the health care debate. In public statements, and during a personal meeting in my office in July, AARP representatives have advocated for H.R. 3200, stating: “This bill would make great strides for all of our members and their families,” yet the bill contains nearly $500 billion in Medicare cuts, including $156 billion in cuts to Medicare health plans affecting 14 million seniors, many of whom are likely AARP members. In short, they have vocally supported a proposal that would cut Medicare benefits, and I find that curious.

Why would an organization that has historically advocated for our seniors aggressively support such a bill? This week, I put that question – and many more – into writing. I am concerned about the cuts to Medicare, and that our seniors may be left without the care they need and deserve. From where I sit, there appears to be a direct conflict of interest between AARP’s advocacy for legislation that slashes the Medicare Advantage program – in which millions of seniors participate – and the sale of AARP-sponsored Medigap plans.

This week the House Republican Conference released a study about this very topic. “A review of its financial statements finds that in 2008, AARP received more than half a billion dollars in revenue from selling products like Medigap supplemental insurance policies-$652.7 million in direct “royalties and fees,” and an increase of more than 31 percent from the $497.6 million in similar revenue AARP generated in 2007.”

Has AARP lost sight of its mission? Is it now only acting to preserve its own interests? I intend to find out.