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AARP - Thoughts?

JumpinJack said:
What's the ins. co, if you don't mind saying? Hartford?

How did you all get $ off of Kindle ebooks? I've not seen a reference anywhere about AARP having any discounts on Kindle books.
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Yes, Hartford.

AARP Discounts | Unbeatable Deals and Overwhelming Offers from Exclusive Merchants - AARPdiscounts.com

They curate a monthly selection of books so there might not be any you're interested in during a given month but if your tastes are eclectic you'll probably find something worth reading. Or you can always wait til the following month...

I'd also suggest your local public library. Most (something like 92% according to the ALA) lend eBooks in most common formats. It can be difficult, so if you're not tech savvy your best bet might be to visit a branch and have a librarian help you configure yourself on their system but once your up and running it's a great way to make use of your local library and entertain yourself for free on a fixed income.

There are also sites like BookLending.com - Borrow and Lend Kindle Books for Free and Lendle Homepage where you can borrow and lend eBooks in the Kindle format to other members of the Kindle community for free.
 
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notquiteright said:
I get better deals being prior service and with a 60% disability- wounds, puts me in the priority one group for healthcare.

I stopped being so interested when AARP started pedaling their own insurance rather than rating and reviewing the marketplace. can't say someone is an honest advocate if they try and sell me their house brand rather than help me wade through all the plans out there....

Justa thought.... :peace
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AARP has always been involved in insurance brokerage. One of its founders was an ins. man. It was originally for retired teachers, but opened its doors to all older people later. It doesn't sell AARP insurance. It brokers ins., like Hartford and such, which it has always done, I think. I believe the deal is that the policies are oriented or for only those who are over 50.
 
soot said:
Yes, Hartford.

AARP Discounts | Unbeatable Deals and Overwhelming Offers from Exclusive Merchants - AARPdiscounts.com

They curate a monthly selection of books so there might not be any you're interested in during a given month but if your tastes are eclectic you'll probably find something worth reading. Or you can always wait til the following month...

I'd also suggest your local public library. Most (something like 92% according to the ALA) lend eBooks in most common formats. It can be difficult, so if you're not tech savvy your best bet might be to visit a branch and have a librarian help you configure yourself on their system but once your up and running it's a great way to make use of your local library and entertain yourself for free on a fixed income.

There are also sites like BookLending.com - Borrow and Lend Kindle Books for Free and Lendle Homepage where you can borrow and lend eBooks in the Kindle format to other members of the Kindle community for free.
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I found the Kindle books. Thanks! (I already have done the Kindle lending thing thru my Kindle.) I love my Kindle. It's not the same as a regular book. Different experience. But it's great for keeping reference books and some fiction and how-to books without having the bulk of all those books. For special books, I like to have hard copies. I also concentrate on FREE Kindle books, so I have saved a lot of money!

I did an online quote for AARP Hartford auto insurance, and then called Hartford to verify it. The cost is half of my Allstate policy! I asked the rep how could this be. She said they only market those particular policies to people over 50, homeowners, good credit, etc. I'm also retired, so I don't have daily commuting in traffic, which I think makes a difference. I hope there's no catch. I'm going to change auto insurance if there's no catch.

If the ins goes up a lot next year, I'll just change again.
 
radcen said:
Are you saying that AARP is kind of like the ACLU? Suffers a horrible and undeserved stigma that someone successfully attached to them years ago, but they actually (for the most part) do good work?

Honest question. I'm not intimately familiar with AARP, hence my making this thread.
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AARP doesn't have a reputation for being liberal, except for a group of people who got angry with it for supporting the ACA. As I said, before then, a group of liberals were angry and left it in droves for supporting the Republican Medicare Part D bill. It didn't have a general reputation then, either, for being conservative, except among that group of liberals angry with it.

Every organization that lobbies for a particular group, which puts it on one side of the aisle or the other, depending on the issue, has this trouble. The NRA, by contrast, has a stance that is not for a particular group of people. It is for a thing (guns), and as such, will never support the side that has even a whiff of interfering with gun profits. As such, it is steadfastly conservative and will never support a liberal politician or bill, on grounds of philosophy alone. That's not the case with AARP and some other organizations that support people, as opposed to an object.

I was angry with AARP for supporting the Medicare Part D (which has contributed much to our deficit, since it wasn't paid for, and since it contained a provision that specifically prohibited Medicare from negotiating for medicine prices....one of the co-sponsors of the bill quit Congress after the bill passed and went to a cushy $1M/yr job at a Big Pharma company).

It supported both Medicare Part D and the ACA just for the benefits to Medicare alone, which is what AARP does....supports bills that benefit seniors. So, that's what it does. No surprise there.

As everyone in this forum probably knows, I hate the ACA and think it's terrible. Notwithstanding that, I joined AARP to see if it benefits me. I'm not the sort to, say, quit buying Perrier water because I'm mad at France (remember that?). Silly.
 
OrphanSlug said:
I can only illustrate this by showing where the money goes (and has been going.)

https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/totals.php?id=D000023726&cycle=2010
https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000023726&cycle=2010

And that is just what is reported...
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I don't think you understand. Those are contributions of individuals who are members of AARP. Not the AARP itself.

See the big jump in the 2008 presidential election (Obama)? Not unusual. The country as a whole contributed massive amounts of money to his historical campaign.

But generally speaking, you can expect an organization to contribute to the side that supports the interests of its membership. If a side supports Social Security and Medicare and wants to make them stronger both financially and in benefits, that will be the side that seniors & their organizations will support. So far, Republicans have supported doing away with SS and Medicare, and, as Newt Gingrich famously said, cutting is so much that it "withers on the vine."

As a senior, I want an organization that supports seniors. There sure aren't many organizations that support seniors, an oft-ignored segment of our society. Even if that org. sometimes supports something that I don't believe in, like Medicare Part D with provisions that benefit Big Pharma.
 
radcen said:
Are you saying that AARP is kind of like the ACLU? Suffers a horrible and undeserved stigma that someone successfully attached to them years ago, but they actually (for the most part) do good work?

Honest question. I'm not intimately familiar with AARP, hence my making this thread.
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I do a lot of work with AARP. They are neither conservative nor liberal. They support seniors. The ACA had a few good things for seniors and so AARP supported it. Granted I've only been working with them for the past three years which is before Medicare Part D so I don't know what was going on there.
 
JumpinJack said:
AARP doesn't have a reputation for being liberal, except for a group of people who got angry with it for supporting the ACA. As I said, before then, a group of liberals were angry and left it in droves for supporting the Republican Medicare Part D bill. It didn't have a general reputation then, either, for being conservative, except among that group of liberals angry with it.

Every organization that lobbies for a particular group, which puts it on one side of the aisle or the other, depending on the issue, has this trouble. The NRA, by contrast, has a stance that is not for a particular group of people. It is for a thing (guns), and as such, will never support the side that has even a whiff of interfering with gun profits. As such, it is steadfastly conservative and will never support a liberal politician or bill, on grounds of philosophy alone. That's not the case with AARP and some other organizations that support people, as opposed to an object.

I was angry with AARP for supporting the Medicare Part D (which has contributed much to our deficit, since it wasn't paid for, and since it contained a provision that specifically prohibited Medicare from negotiating for medicine prices....one of the co-sponsors of the bill quit Congress after the bill passed and went to a cushy $1M/yr job at a Big Pharma company).

It supported both Medicare Part D and the ACA just for the benefits to Medicare alone, which is what AARP does....supports bills that benefit seniors. So, that's what it does. No surprise there.

As everyone in this forum probably knows, I hate the ACA and think it's terrible. Notwithstanding that, I joined AARP to see if it benefits me. I'm not the sort to, say, quit buying Perrier water because I'm mad at France (remember that?). Silly.
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I really appreciate your perspective on this issue. :)
 
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