AARP losing membership over support of healthcare reform

  The AARP has come out in favor of the president’s healthcare reform bill and because of this they are hemorrhaging members. In the last six weeks the AARP has lost 60,000 members due to their support of the healthcare reform bill. Considering that the AARP has millions of members and that they have added more member during the same time period that they lost this may not seem like a big deal but it does give us another angle to examine in this debate.

  While most of the attention has been paid to the “public option” and what Sarah Palin dubbed the “death panels” (a term that was ill advised but a concern that many people have when it comes to the inevitable rationing of healthcare to the elderly) what has not been discussed much is the fact that Obama’s plan calls for the funding of Medicare to be cut in order to help pay for the healthcare reform plan.

  While I am not against not only cutting funding to Medicare, I am for eliminating it, as well as Medicaid, the fact is that the elderly are not going to go along with cutting benefits that they have been receiving in the interest of passing  healthcare reform. This is yet another group of people who have a problem with part of the healthcare reform bill.

  This is just another problem that Obama faces as he attempts to pass his reform bill and if enough elderly people voice their opposition to this bill Obama would be wise to listen to them. The elderly is the one group that can always be counted on to vote in a large percentage, if he cuts some of the funding to their benefits he can rest assured that they will be heading to the polls next year and they will not be supporting him.

  Obama is facing many hurdles with this bill and this could be the latest problem he has to deal with. More and more people are opposing healthcare reform and Obama will have to decide between doing what the majority of the people want and doing what his far left supporters  want.