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Edit Request: History section

[edit]

NOTE: I’m proposing the following edits for FleishmanHillard on behalf of AARP. I am a paid editor and aware of the COI guidelines. I’m submitting these edits to correct inaccuracies and provide additional detail for the infobox, lead, personal life and philanthropy sections and have provided related sourcing for review. Please let me know of any questions or comments. Thanks for your time and consideration.


History section

  • I am suggesting the following History section edits to 1) add additional context explaining how AARP was formed by Dr. Ethel Percy Andrus, 2) clarify the details surrounding the end of AARP’s relationship with Leonard Davis and 3) request that content better suited for the Criticisms section of the article be moved to that section and 4) begin to introduce AARP’s involvement with key advocacy issues.
  • Edit request 1: Suggest adding a paragraph after the first paragraph of the section and before the third paragraph that explains how Dr. Andrus evolved the NRTA into AARP. See paragraph below. This change would provide factual background about the effort she undertook to start the organization. Currently, her role as founder is downplayed.

Andrus decided to seek group insurance coverage for retired teachers through NRTA. She was rejected by dozens of private insurance companies [1] because companies at the time deemed adults over age 65 to be “uninsurable.”[2] In 1955, Continental Casualty Co. agreed to offer coverage to retired teachers in New York State. The experiment was a financial success, and three years later, the NRTA Health Plan was expanded nationally. In 1958, Dr. Andrus created the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) as a sister organization to NRTA. Through membership in AARP, the general population age 55 and older gained access to the insurance benefits previously limited to former teachers.[3][4] Dr. Andrus continued to run AARP until 1967, when she died of a heart attack at age 82.[5]

  • Edit request 2: Suggest replacing last sentence in current paragraph two “Critics of AARP…” with the following two sentences that more clearly represent the transition from Colonial Penn to Prudential. Current sentence as written sounds it’s stating what may possibly have happened vs fact.

AARP severed ties with Davis in 1979 and began dropping Colonial Penn products. AARP sought competitive bids for insurance coverage and in 1981 chose Prudential Insurance Company of America to underwrite the group health plan for AARP members.[6][7]

  • Edit request 3: Suggest moving the current paragraph 3 to the Criticisms section of the article. It fits better there with the rest of the content about Simpson’s investigation in the 1990s. Also, source footnotes 15 and 16 don’t support the points made in the paragraph. Source 15 does not mention Blahous or the statement he is credited with. And source 16 links to a blank Des Moines Register archive page.

Advocacy Section

"Health care"

  • Suggest adding a sentence to the end of the first paragraph under ‘’’Health care’’’ that provides more context on AARP’s initial advocacy in support of Medicare.

AARP testified before Congress in support of the Older Americans Act [8] and the amendments to Social Security [9] that created the Medicare Program, which President Johnson enacted into law in 1965 [10]

  • Request update to last paragraph of this section that includes additional detail on AARP’s record with the ACA.

By 2009, more than 50 million Americans were without health insurance coverage at some point during the year.[11] AARP backed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) proposed by President Barack Obama [12] In early 2017, AARP strongly opposed the American Health Care Act of 2017, saying that older Americans would be unfairly burdened with higher premiums and smaller tax credits.[28] In 2017, AARP successfully opposed legislative efforts to repeal the ACA [13][14][15]

"New Category Within Advocacy Section"

  • Suggest adding a new subhead/category to the Advocacy section – Age Discrimination. Intention is to improve the article by including an additional category in which AARP has a prominent advocacy record. See recommendation below.

Age Discrimination

AARP advocated for The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 [16] and the Age Discrimination Act of 1975. In 2009, AARP backed the “Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act” (POWADA) [17] which aims to restore fairness for workers 40 and older by treating age discrimination as seriously as other forms of workplace discrimination.[18]


References

  1. ^ Tierney, John (October 23, 1988). "Old Money, New Power". New York Times. Retrieved September 10, 2021.
  2. ^ Devoss, David (July 3, 1989). "A Retirement Force". South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Retrieved September 10, 2021. The one thing Andrus could not provide for the retired teachers was health insurance. Her petition for group insurance was rejected by 31 companies because they considered people 65 and older uninsurable.
  3. ^ Day, Christine (2017). AARP: America's Largest Interest Group and Its Impact. Praeger. p. 9. ISBN 978-1-4408-3410-3.
  4. ^ Cassel, Christine (2005). Medicare Matters: What Geriatric Medicine Can Teach American Health Care. University of California Press. p. 175. ISBN 0-520-24624-1.
  5. ^ Rasmussen, Cecilia (December 14, 2003). "Pioneering educator founded the AARP". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 10, 2021.
  6. ^ "Market Place; Colonial Penn: What Next?". New York Times. July 22, 1981. Retrieved September 10, 2021.
  7. ^ "The Impact of AARP". The Washington Post. April 29, 1992. Retrieved September 10, 2021. It was not until the early '80s that these issues were settled, by which time AARP had replaced Colonial Penn with Prudential as the primary carrier for policies offered to its members, and severed its ties with Colonial Penn.
  8. ^ Hearings Before the Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations United States Senate Ninety-First Congress Second Session on H.R. 18515. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1970. pp. 1337–1342. Retrieved September 13, 2021.
  9. ^ Hearings Before the Subcommittee of the Aged and Aging of the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare United States Senate Eighty-Sixth Congress Second Session. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1960. pp. 190–194. Retrieved September 13, 2021.
  10. ^ Ingram, Lenora Gay (January 1, 1996). A Study of the American Association of Retired Persons. Nevada, Las Vegas: UNLV University Libraries. Retrieved September 13, 2021.
  11. ^ Wyckoff, Blair (September 16, 2010). "Number of Americans with Health Insurance Fell in 2009". NPR. Retrieved September 13, 2021. All told, 50.7 million Americans didn't have health insurance last year.
  12. ^ Pfeiffer, Dan (December 15, 2009). "AARP Announces Support for Senate Health Reform Bill". The White House. Retrieved September 13, 2021. And today the health insurance reform effort gained even more critical momentum as the AARP announced that it is supporting the Senate reform legislation.
  13. ^ Pear, Robert (March 5, 2017). "Repeal of Health Law Faces a New Hurdle: Older Americans". New York Times. Retrieved September 13, 2021.
  14. ^ Belvedere, Matthew (March 13, 2017). "GOP's Obamacare replacement bill is an 'age tax' on older Americans, AARP says". CNBC. Retrieved September 13, 2021.
  15. ^ Sheetz, Michael (June 27, 2017). "AARP slams Senate GOP health care proposal, calls for Congress to 'start from scratch'". CNBC. Retrieved September 13, 2021. Non-profit AARP said Tuesday that based on the results of the Congressional Budget Office's analysis of the GOP Senate healthcare bill, all senators should vote against the Better Care Reconciliation Act.
  16. ^ Rothenberg, Jessica Z.; Gardner, Daniel S. (March 1, 2011). Protecting Older Workers: The Failure of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (PDF). Kalamazoo, MI: Western Michigan University. Retrieved September 13, 2021.
  17. ^ Staff, TCAJOB (February 2020). "AARP study: Age discrimination costs economy billions each year". Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business. Retrieved September 13, 2021. Backed by AARP, POWADA would address an adverse 2009 Supreme Court decision that made it much more difficult for older workers to prove claims of illegal bias based on age.
  18. ^ Nova, Annie (June 11, 2019). "Older workers could soon find it easier to prove age discrimination". CNBC. Retrieved September 13, 2021. The legislation makes Congress' intent clear that discrimination in the workplace – against older workers or others – is never acceptable," said Nancy LeaMond, AARP executive vice president chief advocacy and engagement officer.