Barry Rand, the chief executive officer of AARP, on Friday tried to parse the group’s involvement in the lucrative insurance business.
“We are not an insurance company,” Rand repeatedly emphasized.
While it is true that the group does not directly insure individuals, Rand was really making a distinction without difference, since in reality the group rakes in hundreds of millions of dollars each year from allowing private insurers to issue policies using AARP’s brand.
Nonetheless, Rand insisted that even so, the money the group earns from letting insurers borrow its brand name is then used to promote its “mission” to promote “social good.”
