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Indeed, and that's exactly the biggest reason I've never joined.
Not to mention it makes no sense whatsoever to pay membership fees to get a discount on something. I also am not a Sam's Club member nor would I ever join a union and pay union dues hoping for a .50c raise.
AARP is all hogwash and marketing. It preys on the easily influenced.
Even if the if the money saved exceeds the membership fee? We get a reimbursement check back from Costco that usually exceeds are membership fee. It did this year so we made money there add it the discounts from shopping there and Bada Bing. Also with Amazon Prime and the amount we get from there we make out in saved shipping cost without having to buy the minimum for free shipping etc etc. The net cost for membership is far exceeded by the savings making it a great net benefit deal. For us it was doing a cost/benefit analysis and letting that be our guide. I understand your thoughts just sharing another perspective.
There are very good non political reasons to not like AARP and not want to join. Certainly comments about marketing and insurance are right on spot. In fact many who have AARP sponsored United Health Care Advantage are going to become pretty upset and may take it out on AARP for good reason if they don't intervene. However that is a topic for another thread on changes to Medicare Advantage doctor coverage which is now up.
So was it the politics or the cost/benefit analysis you did that was the major factor in not having? If the insurance from Hartford had been $300 cheaper would you have kept or signed up for because the cost/benefit was considerable or would politics have swayed you to stay with the more expensive policy?
Cost isn't the only consideration when purchasing car insurance. Quality of claims service is an important factor. In my experience as an attorney, the Hartford generally does a good job with respect to fairly evaluating and paying claims. Some other low cost auto insurers don't.
All auto insurers are not created equal.
Its something to remember when you chuckle thinking you are "saving" $250 a year on your car insurance.
Cost isn't the only consideration when purchasing car insurance. Quality of claims service is an important factor. In my experience as an attorney, the Hartford generally does a good job with respect to fairly evaluating and paying claims. Some other low cost auto insurers don't.
All auto insurers are not created equal.
Its something to remember when you chuckle thinking you are "saving" $250 a year on your car insurance.
He was already with Hartford and it was a Hartford v Hartford comparison.
Rather than cut out the freebies handed out by most Medicare Advantage plans or reduce its profits a tad, UHC would rather diminish its provider network. Of course, UHC still wants the taxpayer subsidy. Corporate welfare at its best.
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You do know, don't you, that UHC sells more than Advantage Plans?
I wouldn't buy from UHC either, if all that was available was an Advantage plan.(and unless in the right area, not from any other company either)
So was it the politics or the cost/benefit analysis you did that was the major factor in not having? If the insurance from Hartford had been $300 cheaper would you have kept or signed up for because the cost/benefit was considerable or would politics have swayed you to stay with the more expensive policy?
Primarily cost/benefit. They had nothing to offer that I didn't already have, except for a magazine I didn't want and lots of snail-mail advertising that I neither need nor want.
THEN the politics comes into play. Given the fact that AARP and I are often at polar opposites over legislation, I choose to NOT support them.
I have better things to do with that little bit of money that I would send them. If nothing else, it will purchase several bottles of good California wine!
I would like to see AARP do more to fight age discrimination in the workplace. From time to time they run useless articles along the line of "Great Jobs for Older Workers." The great jobs in the article are always unpaid commission jobs making cold calls for insurance brokers or r.e. agency chains or low paid hourly service jobs in retail.
Although they changed their name to an acronym of their former full name American Association of Retired People years ago to show how hip they are, the abbreviated name still implies that anyone over 50 should no longer be in the workforce.
Their insurance now is probably crap, but my mom bought a supplemental policy from AARP in 1984 and she always said the smartest thing she ever did was buy that insurance. She died in 2011, but that policy paid for itself over and over again in her later years. It paid for literally everything that Medicare didn't cover, including nursing home care after Medicare payments for it were maxed out. You can't get a policy like that now for any amount of money. Even the nursing home was shocked at what it covered. They told me no insurance would pay for this and that, etc., and then when they looked at the policy they saw that her policy did indeed cover things that current polices would not. I don't know all the specifics, I just know that she had great coverage with her supplemental policy.
But we all know that signing up today that would not be the case, whether it was AARP or some other company.
If fighting for retiree rights for Social Security, Medicare, and other issues for older Americans make them Democratic supporters then I'm all for it. However, it would be my guess that if Democrats were supporting cuts to these benefits AARP would be screaming on our behalf. Too many today try and tie organizations to political parties, but in reality they're are supporting the group that supports them. The GOP used the ACLU when Obama used drones on American citizens which really proves these parties are just whores to their cause and will use anything too buy votes.
Not too mention the OP is constantly posted political garbage in support of as single party.
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