AARP Hearing Center
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The AARP Public Policy Institute (PPI) was established in 1985 to strengthen AARP’s policy voice, with an early focus on improving the quality, accessibility, and affordability of health care. From the beginning, PPI helped ensure that AARP’s policy positions and advocacy are grounded in evidence, a role it continues today.
For more than 40 years, PPI has applied that expertise to the issues that matter most to people 50-plus and their families: financial security, health care, prescription drug costs, long-term care, caregiving, and livable communities. This anniversary celebrates PPI’s history while reinforcing its value to AARP’s work to empower people to choose how they live as they age.
Explore some of the milestones that have shaped PPI's history.
1985
- The AARP Public Policy Institute is established to strenghten AARP's policy voice by ensuring that its positions and advocacy are grounded in evidence.
1993
- PPI launches the Employment Data Digest, providing evidence on labor market trends affecting workers 55 and older.
1997
- AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving launch the Caregiving in the US report to draw attention to family caregivers. Published every five years, the series becomes a leading source of data on family caregiving in America.
2004
- PPI begins the work that becomes Rx Price Watch, building a sustained evidence base on prescription drug prices and affordability.
2006
- PPI helps advance the Auto IRA, turning research and analysis into a practical solution for expanding retirement savings access.
2007
- PPI releases Valuing the Invaluable, showing the scale and significance of family caregivers' economic contributions.
- PPI helps strengthen nursing through the Center to Champion Nursing in America and the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action, an 18-year collaboration focused on improving access to care and nursing education, leadership and retention.
2012
- PPI’s landmark Home Alone study elevates family caregiving as a national policy issue and helps drive passage of legislation across state lines to better support family caregivers when care recipients are discharged from the hospital.
2015
- PPI launches the AARP Livability Index™ platform, providing a practical tool for people to assess how well their communities support people as they age.
2017
- PPI publishes the first study to examine whether social isolation affects health care spending among older adults. It finds limited social contact is associated with an estimated $6.7 billion in additional Medicare spending each year.
2019
- PPI launches AARPBankSafe™, which trains frontline employees of financial Institutions to identify and prevent financial exploitation.
2020
- In response to COVID-19, PPI collaborates with the Scripps Gerontology Center at Miami University in Ohio to launch the AARP Nursing Home COVID-19 Dashboard, tracking the pandemic’s impact on nursing homes, including residents and staff.
2025
- PPI launches the AARP Healthy Aging Monitor, examining how often people across the country use preventive health services recommended for adults in midlife and older age.
- PPI launches the AARP Nursing Home Quality and Safety Dashboard, providing a state-level overview of nursing home performance on measures that affect resident health and safety.