AARP worth joining?

[PasadenaTrudy]

I'm turning 50 on Sunday and I've been emailed to join the AARP. Any members here?

[magical thyme]

2. I joined them for one year, I think back in 2003 when I turned 50

I guess it's one way to overfill your mailbox with more "special offers" in a month than you could possibly read in a lifetime. I ended up getting as good as or better combined car/homeowner's insurance through AAA, along with all the other AAA benefits.

Maybe after I'm actually retired I'll reconsider joining for a year. Right now, I don't have time to read even the headlines of the thousands of chits and bits of paper they mail, never mind sort them into potentially useful versus total junk, and then actually research the potentially useful to see how they compare with other sources.

But I suspect most of the "deals" are on luxuries I couldn't possibly afford now for anything more than free.

[840high]

3. Yes.

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. NO.

They used to be worth it.
Until they sold out to insurance and other companies.
I joined years ago, at 50.
then I moved....across country.
and back again.
And over that course of 10 plus years, they STILL send me, without fail, postal spam.
At the correct address each time.

My home insurance offers the same discounts on stuff.
Many businesses offer "senior" discounts on stuff, no worse and no better than AARP.
and they sell your name to countless places
( I know because I signed up as Jane ARP Smith, and STILL get junk mail from everybody with the ARP middle name on it.
(handy way to know who sold your info, is to use a memorable initial in your sign up name)

[HipChick]

7. Great idea..

[antiquie]

5. No; see response #4.

[B Calm]

6. It's basically an insurance company.

[hopemountain]

8. they do not truly represent seniors

they supported the bush admins changes of medicare and the implementation of the part d insurance "requirement" and fines.

i no longer support them. one can get the same discounts from a triple A membership or even better ones with a costco membership.

[No Vested Interest]

19. I quit AARP formally when they endorsed the Bush Medicare part D

without any arrangement to pay for it.
The Republicans did a lot of arm-twisting that night to get it passed at about 4 a.m., as I remember.

[Kaleva]

9. I was member for 1 year and didn't get any benefit from it.

[KG]

10. all I want is my seniors discount from Wendy's. I don't need AARP for that dammit.

excuse me...

hey! you little bastards, get off of my lawn!

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

12. There's a seniors discount at Wendy's? Who knew?

It's almost lunchtime ...

[PasadenaTrudy]

11. Thanks for your replies

I think I'll pass on it. I have AAA auto discounts already and I don't need life insurance. One less hassle!

[LiberalEsto]

13. Waste of time, waste of paper nt

[Aristus]

14. Maria Shriver is on the cover of this month's issue of AARP magazine.

She's looking much better now since she divorced Ah-nult.

[anasv]

15. yes, for Medigap insurance

I didn't join until I became eligible for Medicare. I have an AARP Medigap policy and haven't had to spend a dime, even for fairly extensive medical care. They are super also about Plan D.

[PasadenaTrudy]

16. I'm still a kid

at 50

[llmart]

17. Oooooohhhhh....I need to pick your brain a bit....

as I'm eligible for Medicare this year and am starting to research the best way to go for insurance. Some of my friends say they like Medicare Advantage plans through BCBS. Others say AARP (is it United Healthcare??).

[anasv]

20. the problems with Medicare advantage

You may know this, but there are three ways to go with Medicare coverage.

(1) Have just Medicare, which leaves you without insurance for a significant part of bills.

(2) Have Medicare + Medigap (the later approximately picks up the rest above what Medicare pays.) Medigap policies come in various flavors, like they may or may not cover copays. This is all defined for you on the Medicare official website.

(3) MedicareAdvantage, which is a total replacement for both Medicare and Medigap.

The problems with Medicare Advantage:

(1) it costs the government more for the same services provided by Medicare+Medigap plans. You know who in Congress you can thank for that. Obama is reining that in a little as part of the negotiating he did with "health care" companies, although of course it's not part of Obamacare.

(2) In MedicareAdvantage, an insurance company stands between you and healthcare. Medicare allows any number of things automatically that Medicare Advantage plans require that they approve before treatment. Anything Medicare allows, Medigap plans allow automatically without any approval process. So if you're thrashing around in pain and have MedicareAdvantage, enjoy waiting a few days for BigInsurance to approve some tests or treatment.

I have Medicare + a Medigap plan F from AARP. I haven't paid a dime for healthcare except for prescriptions for the several years I've had this, which includes a hospitalization and a mind numbing number of doctors' visits and tests.

AARP's Medigap plans are administered by UnitedHealthcare, but all the plans are defined by the government, so forget the horror stories you've heard about how UHC trashes its customers. I've been there done that before I retired when the company I worked for had its healthplan from UHC. Medigap from AARP is nothing like that junk.

[llmart]

21. Thank you so much for that informative post.

I planned on doing much more research the closer I got to enrolling, but this saves me a lot of time. The one reason I was leaning towards a BCN Advantage plan is that you get vision and dental coverage for $19/month. I need several crowns and currently I pay for my own dental coverage for $40/month.

What do you do about dental?

I've always been extremely healthy, but I'm a realist and no matter how much you take care of yourself, the old body just wears out with each passing year.

[UTUSN]

18. Short answer: neh. Long answer, I dropped out when ARRP did the Shrub/MedicareD thing n/t

[Sgent]

22. Maybe

My dad's homeowners is 40% of mine, for a house worth 3x as much (i.e. his rate / 1000 is 12% of mine). No one else was even close for him.

Auto insurance and medigap might be cheaper (shop).

Hotel discounts maybe worthwhile.

[Le Taz Hot]

23. Mixed bag.

Pros: The discounts. LOTS of places take AARP discounts. I was able to get a 10% discount off of my Amtrak ticket. Lots of hotels, restaurants, transportation companies, etc. offer an AARP discount.

Cons: You'll be on every life insurance/death benefit mailing list known to mankind. I get offers virtually everyday and they're annoying as hell. And DON'T give them your e-mail address or the same thing will happen to your e-mail.

Here's a link to AARP discounts:

http://discounts.aarp.org/