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A Heated Debate Is Dividing Generations in AARP

The New York Times , 10/3/09

Abstract:

In hundreds of meetings with millions of its members to promote a health care overhaul, AARP, the huge organization for older Americans, has often found itself forced to referee a battle between generations.

Its 40 million members are split about evenly between those who have access to Medicare, the federal government’s health program for the elderly, and those who are too young to be eligible for such benefits. The younger members, or those between the ages of 50 and 64, sometimes face terrible choices in the private insurance market, with age and declining health status making premiums high and benefits poor.

But members 65 and older get among the most secure medical benefits in the country, and many are in no mood to share.

On Tuesday, the fight came to this northern town of die-hard Green Bay Packer fans. At a restaurant next to the Menominee River, Karen Rasmussen, 58, told a gathering of 38 AARP members who were just tucking into a dinner of chicken and mashed potatoes that she and her husband, who has cancer, were being crushed by medical debts.

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