AARP Members Canceling Memberships Over Health Care Debate

By Charles Bassett, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- The health care debate has a number of retirees wondering who's fighting for them. An organization that advocates for retirees is seeing some of its members pullout over the issue.

The AARP supports overhauling the health care system, but some of its members are not sure exactly what that means, so they're dropping their memberships.

The AARP has launched a new ad trying to debunk some of the myths and scare tactics of the health care debate.

The ad says "Tell Congress not to let myths get in the way of what's broken with health care. Learn the facts."

Now, the AARP said 60 thousand of its members have canceled their memberships since July, mainly because of proposed cuts to Medicare.

"When you take a position on health care or when you are advocating for health care, and we are advocating for specific points on health care, sometime we see members that decide to leave our organization," said Craig Davis with Oklahoma AARP.

There are over 440,000 AARP members in Oklahoma. The state office can't say how many have left due to the health care debate. But one agency that is picking up AARP members is the conservative American Seniors Association.

"I think seniors are extremely upset with cuts in Medicare," said Stewart Barton, with the American Seniors Association.

Despite losing members, local AARP leaders say their goal is to help older Oklahomans, and they're doing that by asking for lower drug costs and strengthening Medicare, protecting health care choices, ending discrimination by insurance companies and guaranteeing stable affordable coverage.

"We have not endorsed a bill at this point. We are working hard on these four specific points that they be included in any final legislation that comes before Congress," Davis said.

Despite losing 60 thousand members since July, AARP said it has also gained 400 thousand new members during that same time period.

Local AARP leaders met with Representative Frank Lucas Tuesday to discuss health care. They're meeting with Representative John Sullivan next week and they're holding a teleconference to answer member's questions.

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