AARP Endorsement a Coup for House Health Insurance Bill

AARP Endorsement a Coup for House Health Insurance Bill in Politics and Legislation

With the AARP’s official endorsement yesterday, the House health bill is moving more confidently toward its floor vote, just one day away. Several aspects of this moment gave us pause. The AARP has never endorsed this kind of comprehensive health care overhaul, and the House bill is the most sweeping overhaul of health care policy in four decades.

"We started this debate more than two years ago with the twin goals of making coverage affordable to our younger members and protecting Medicare for seniors,” said AARP CEO Barry Rand to the Associated Press. "We've read the Affordable Health Care for America Act and we can say with confidence that it meets those goals with improved benefits for people in Medicare and needed health insurance market reforms to help ensure every American can purchase affordable health coverage.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer are no doubt breathing a little easier. The AARP’s support (or lack thereof) has proved powerful in the past, helping to pass the 2003 Prescription Drug Benefit Act and stop the privatization of Social Security under former President George W. Bush.

But some major issues still remain. In particular, the coverage of illegal immigrants and restrictions on federal funds for abortion could both be explosive debates. The NY Times does a nice job of parsing out the different factions and deals being brokered around the latter, which are many and could still unravel the legislation. Here’s to hoping compromise prevails. 

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