User:JeffreyArthurVA/sandbox

History

Founding, origins and early years

Ethel Percy Andrus was the first female (high?) school principal in California. After retiring from public education, she developed an interest in helping other retired teachers who were living on limited incomes and lacked access to affordable health insurance. This led Ethel to found the National Retired Teachers Association (NRTA) in 1947. She met with over 40 private insurance companies to secure health insurance for her fellow retired teachers but was met with rejection. Eventually she met with Leonard Davis, an insurance broker from New York, who established the NRTA Health Plan insured by Continental Casualty Co. In a few years tens of thousands of retired teachers became NRTA members and signed up with this health insurance plan.

Word about the NRTA and the NRTA Health Plan began to spread beyond the initial group of retired teachers and into the general public. Other retired Americans also faced challenges finding health coverage, in part because Medicare did not exist in the United States at that time. The NRTA began receiving letters from non-educators who wanted to join, so in 1958 a separate organization -- the American Association of Retired Persons -- was formed, granting the general population access to the insurance benefits previously limited to former teachers. To spread the word about the association, keep members informed of its activities, and _____, AARP began publishing its own magazine called Modern Maturity. This combination of the publication and access to insurance benefits proved successful, and membership in the newly-formed AARP grew to 130,000 in its first year.

In its early years AARP expanded beyond the realm of health insurance and began developing other benefits, programs and services for its members. In 1962 it created one of the first mail-order prescription discount services, which delivered prescriptions at negotiated prices directly to AARP members who found it difficult to visit retail pharmacies. AARP also expanded its focus on promoting the ___aging__ , ____. The association's "Dynamic Maturity" pavilion at the 1964-65 World's Fair expanded awareness of this new view on aging, and an article about AARP in the January 1964 issue of Reader's Digest prompted 100,000 inquiries from people interested in membership. By 1962 (?'64 possible?) the combined membership of AARP and NRTA had grown to 400,000 Americans, making it among the largest membership organizations in the U.S.

Growth into a national organization

Benefits expansion

AARP experienced significant levels of growth in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. The membership grew to 1 million members in 1967; 5.8 million in 1974; 10.4 million in 1978; and 32 million in 1989. Membership went from representing 3% of the age-eligible population in 1967 to 51% of the age-eligible population in 1989. This growth was fueled in part by expansion into a wider range of benefits beyond health coverage, based on the association's vision of active and positive aging. During these decades AARP created a travel service that took members on domestic and international trips, began offering opportunities for members to volunteer, and built out an expanded range of discounts negotiated with private businesses such as hotels and restaurants. AARP also hosted classes and seminars on topics important to its members, such as the 55-Alive seminar on driving skills. That class, now called the AARP Driver Safety Program, helps refresh driving skills and in certain cases grants members a discount on their automotive insurance upon completion. During this era AARP grew its charitable activities as well. In 1968 it started a service called Tax-Aide which matches low- and moderate-income people with volunteers who provide free tax preparation and filing services. This started with a four-person team of tax preparation volunteers, and as of 2018 it has provided free tax services to 50 million taxpayers.

• double-check what age-eligible population meant (since it started as 65?+ and later changed)?

While one of AARP's initial benefits was access to a health insurance product underwritten by Continental Casualty, Co., in the 1960s and 70s it branched out and partnered with other insurance companies to offer life, automotive and homeowners insurance products designed to meet the needs of its members. This growth beyond health insurance occurred because in the 1960s, AARP members began to write in with letters explaining that automotive insurance companies were refusing to cover them past a certain age. In turn, AARP worked with automotive insurance companies to develop an insurance product specifically for American drivers age ___ and up.

In 1963 Davis bought out Continental Casualty's AARP/NRTA policies and formed Colonial Penn, his own company, which became the sole provider of insurance to AARP/NRTA. As Colonial Penn grew, competing insurance providers begin offering plans tailored to retired Americans. A 1974 Senate subcommittee investigation, a Money Magazine report in 1975, and a Consumer Reports assessment in 1976 all ranked Colonial Penn's offerings poorly when compared to competing offerings. Critics charged that Davis was using AARP as a marketing arm for his insurance company. CBS' 60 Minutes picked up the story and brought national attention to the issue. AARP parted ways with Davis in 1979 and began dropping Colonial Penn products. AARP sought competitive bids and in 1981 chose Prudential Insurance as its group health insurance provider.

• make it all past tense (currently switching between two)
• check: in this era was it more than just access to insurance--did people get a discount?
• One of AARP's top benefits was access to health insurance through Continental Casualty. However in the 70s, prompted by requests from its members to ____, AARP expanded to add auto insurance.
• drop "occurred" part
• just say "past the age of 65"
• drop phrase "This growth beyond health insurance occurred"
• Instead of in turn, say "in response, AARP"
• check: did life and
• check: was it both rental car companies not renting cars to older people, plus auto insurance companies.

Advocacy expansion

As AARP's membership grew, so did its prominence as a voice for older Americans on Capitol Hill. But this did not happen overnight. The 1960s, 70s and 80s saw a wave of political advocacy groups forming in Washington, D.C. AARP moved its headquarters from California to D.C. in 1967, but only engaged in limited lobbying prior to the early 1970s. AARP advocated for and supported two major laws prohibiting age discrimination: The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (passed the same year Andrus passed away), and the Age Discrimination Act of 1975. AARP's growing involvement in advocacy work at the time led to the National Journal writing in 1976 that "There's a New Kick in the Step of the Senior Citizen Lobbies." In 1985, AARP formalized its lobbying efforts with the creation of its own think tank, AARP Public Policy Institute. AARP is commonly referred to as one of _____, described as the "800 lb gorilla in the room"

• check on when we started filing lawsuits. This = advocacy is not strictly lobbying, but involved getting into courts.
• phrase that says amid reports of widespread age discrimination in the workplace
• there was no one else out there doing this for older americans. Membership was growing because AARP is
• photo: Johnson Medicare signing and sentence about this as well.

Structural expansion and changes

--As AARP grew and expanded over the years, the structure did as well

--AARP and NRTA share resources for decades and formally merge in 1982

--creation of AARP Foundation. Ask Ishan.

--state office expansion (originally state chapters, then offices?)

--volunteer network

As AARP grew its membership beyond 30 million, the scale of AARP's revenue attracted the attention of the IRS, which audited AARP's tax-exempt status in light of its earnings. AARP voluntarily settled with the IRS, paying $135 million for the years 1985-1994, and settled again for $52 million in 1999. AARP also paid the U.S. Postal Service $2.8 million in 1994 for mailing its products and service advertisements at nonprofit rates. This led AARP to form a separate for-profit taxable subsidiary, called AARP Services, Inc., in 1999. ASI operates as a distinct legal entity, separate from AARP--the primary 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization--and the AARP Foundation, its 501(c)(3) charitable unit. This separation clarified tax liability.

• check original
• maybe don't need to cite fines as this gets into the weeds.
• This led AARP to form a separate taxable subsidiary.

Modern era

• AARP reduced the membership age from 55 to 50 in 1984. In 1999, changed name from "American Association of Retired Persons" to AARP, reflecting the changing nature of aging in the country, as 1/3 of members at the time were actively working. Several other trends shaped a shift from serving retirees to representing all Americans 50 and up.

--Life expectancy increased - age 70 in 1963, to 78.5 in 2015. At the same time, cost of care went up and people increasingly preferred aging in place. Many caregivers = people in 50s and 60s who are still working. --> AARP grew efforts around caregiving, including CARE Act, etc.

--shift from defined-contribution pensions to 401(k) and similar plans where individual employees assume more responsibility and risk. Recessions from 2000 - 2008 reducing nest eggs. Decreased job stability; combination of preference and need to work longer than past generations and at times shift to part time work rather than retire in the traditional sense --> AARP increased involvement/focus on Work. Age discrimination in the workplace. Job board and employer pledge.

--health care, prescription drug and overall cost of living increasing at a pace faster than inflation. -->

Fraud - consumer fraud prevention act of 1995 (combat telemarketing fraud) https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/jmd/legacy/2013/11/06/hear-97-1996.pdf Money

--generational changes (Boomers, Gen X) with different preferences --> Disrupt Aging.

• Serving new generations more diverse in political ideology

--State offices expanded from nearly half of states under Executive Director Horace Deets ('88 - '01) to all 50 states, D.C., as well as USVI and Puerto Rico under Novelli ('01 - '09).

2005: AARP’s advocacy helps defeat proposals to carve private accounts out of Social Security.

2011: Republicans on House Ways and Means Committee challenge AARP’s tax-exempt status

To save for advocacy section:

--The legal structure for AARP is nonpartisan, does not have a PAC and does not endorse candidates or political parties. At times through history, advocated for and worked with policies/politicians across political spectrum.

--1981: President Ronald Reagan proposed Social Security benefit reductions for first time since inception of the program; AARP lobbied against benefit cuts and the president withdrew the proposal.

--1990s: supported Bill Clinton's health care reform efforts which did not pass.

--2003: AARP helps pass Republican-led Medicare Modernization Act of 2003, which added prescription drug coverage to Medicare and added a private insurance offering to Medicare (Medicare Advantage).

--By the year 2000, AARP had 34 million members, thousands of local chapters and state offices, and was the largest, most visible lobbying _____