Tuesday, August 18, 2009

AARP Loses 60,000 Members by Supporting Pro-Rationing Health Care Agenda

(LifeNews.com) -- The nation's largest organization for seniors is losing members thanks to its support of a health care agenda that includes rationing health care.

Although the group has not technically endorsed the House and Senate bills specifically, it has put enough of its imprimatur on them that President Barack Obama wrongly said AARP endorsed the bills in a recent town hall forum.

In materials provided to CBS News on Monday, AARP said 60,000 citizens have left its membership rolls in protest over its general support for the government-run health care plan.

AARP spokesman Drew Nannis said it is not unusual for the group to lose members when it advocates controversial positions on issues."We take stands on issues that are contentious, it's part of what we do," Nannis said. "And because we have so many members we'll always have a small percentage that disagree with us so strongly they feel they need to cancel membership."

But its support has gone beyond that, as AARP hosted an event for Obama and the bills present a host of concerns about rationing and assisted suicide.

1 comment:

Nameless Cynic said...

You know, funny thing. There's one important part of that story missing.

He said AARP gained some 400,000 new members during the same period and that 1.5 million members renewed their membership.

Funny thing. When I went to school, that meant a net gain of 340,000 members. Doesn't really sound like they're losing ground to me.

"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty" (Churchill)