Policy, Research and Thought Leadership

In The Second Fifty, Debra Whitman, Chief Public Policy Officer at AARP, leads us through the most important questions people face as they age and offers practical advice that can enable Americans to live a longer, healthier, more meaningful second half of life.

Rising home care costs are outpacing general inflation. Home care inflation grew by 8.7% from September 2023 to September 2024, compared to the general inflation increase of 2.4%. It’s putting older adults at risk for not receiving needed services and placing increased strain on caregivers.

Midlife adults bear the burden of growing costs in employer-sponsored health insurance. For many of the 63% of adults ages 50 to 64 who get health insurance through an employer, the impact is creating affordability and access challenges with higher premiums, limited options, and wage and benefit reductions.

Medicare Part D enrollees could benefit from a little publicized policy change that lowers their out-of-pocket costs on prescription drugs. The change requires plans to count the value of plan-provided supplemental benefits towards an enrollee’s out-of-pocket costs, thus reducing what an enrollee spends.

Learn more about the top performing communities in the AARP Livability Index and the keys to providing value to residents of all ages through this video. The AARP Livability Index scores every neighborhood in the US, identifying factors in transportation, housing, and other areas that most affect people’s lives.

Older adults are optimistic and happy about growing older. Overall, over four in five are optimistic (89%) about their future and feel happy (86%), a sentiment that grows stronger with age.

AARP outlines a blueprint for a robust national plan that has the potential to achieve sweeping solutions, enabling all people, as they age, to maintain good health, build financial resilience, and remain in their homes and communities.

A new AARP study reveals a positive shift over the past five years in how adults 50-plus are portrayed online, though improvement is still needed.