Organizing Special Interest Groups In The United States

Everywhere you look, there are special interest groups and you may not even know it. Special interest groups are formed everywhere around us. From education, down to gambling. Special interest groups are defined as a group of individuals or organizations that share a common interest. Interest groups influence public policy by lobbying their specific interest that they have in mind. The number one way they do this is by providing information to politicians, but not all special interest groups are formed for political proposes. Many special interest groups are formed for different reasons. You may be in one without even knowing it. In my opinion, organized special interest groups are beneficial to society because they are a vital necessity for

Retired people are also the number one known citizens to donate millions of dollars to members of congress, even leading, over oil companies, electric companies, and lobbyist them self’s. AARP began in 1958 by a man named Ethel Percy Andrus a retired educator from California. Ethel Percy Andrus, then grew AARP into one of the biggest insurance companies of its time, with now over thirty-seven million members and represents age fifty and up. “When the AARP expresses interest in an issue, politicians, the media and the public take note” (Bussel). AARP has endorsed many legislatures including the Affordable care act, and have successfully passed it. AARP then made over 2.8 billion dollars from supporting Obamas affordable care act. AARP has an additional influence, through selling millions of supplemental health insurance policies to seniors. As long as Medicare remains a viable option and with over 10,000 baby boomers turning 55 every day, AARP shows no signs of becoming obsolete any time soon (Bussel). AARP power consist of being very affluent and influential in the political systems. AARP operates by being one of the largest private health insurers in America regardless of age and making affordable full health coverage for seniors over fifty. AARP also operates and effects our society. AARP has generated over 458 million dollars in royalty fees from plan called “medigap”. “Medigap plans are private insurance plans that seniors buy to cover things that traditional, government-run Medicare does not, like catastrophic coverage." It has also brought in 266 million dollars for lobbyist that they receive in membership dues. AARP aggressively, and successfully, lobbied to keep Medigap reforms out of Obamacare. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the Medigap reforms that AARP blocked would have saved the average senior as much as $415 in premiums per year. (Avik Roy). It is believed that AARP blocked