AARP backs Medicare bill

The nation’s leading seniors’ advocacy group, the AARP, yesterday strongly endorsed the White House-backed Medicare prescription-drug bill and pledged to “work vigorously for its passage,”including a $7 million three-day ad blitz starting tomorrow.

Republican leaders said the endorsement will help secure votes for the bill and fend off Democratic arguments that the legislation will undermine Medicare by giving private plans too big of a role in providing seniors with the new drug benefit.

“AARP gives you the ‘Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval’ when it comes to seniors’ issues,” said House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, Illinois Republican. “They care deeply about the future of Medicare, and they wouldn’t endorse something that would lead to the end of that program as some critics contend.”

Democratic leaders attacked the endorsement, saying the group had caved in on the principles it laid out in a July letter that any final agreement must have.

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, South Dakota Democrat, called it “a mistake that does not serve the interests of its members” and predicted that “when seniors see the details of the Republican plan, the AARP leadership will undoubtedly regret this ill-advised decision.”

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, said she was “deeply disappointed” in the organization.

From the other side, one House conservative who opposes the bill said the endorsement might backfire by helping push other House Republicans to join him in opposition.

“That’ll help our cause,” said Rep. Mike Pence, Indiana Republican. “You don’t know how many conservative colleagues I’ve talked to who have said that if the AARP is for [the bill], it has to be bad.”

Mr. Pence explained that many conservatives view the AARP as a group that always supports government spending and works against true reform.

Indeed, one of the reasons the AARP cited for supporting the bill is that the Republicans agreed to scale back the provision demanded by House conservatives that would require Medicare to compete directly against private health plans. Under the final bill, that is reduced to a demonstration project in six cities.

“AARP is pleased by the improvements made,” the statement read, pointing out that the bill’s competition provision was “downsized to a limited test starting in 2010, which has significant protections for those in traditional Medicare.”

The organization, which claims 35 million members 50 and older, is planning to spend $7 million on its ad campaign, which will start tomorrow.Commercials will run on national cable stations and local broadcast channels, and ads will run in 50 newspapers across the country.

John Rother, the group’s policy director, told reporters that AARP was prepared to spend more if Congress has not voted before Friday.

An AARP spokesman said although the bill isn’t perfect, it is good and necessary.

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