How AARP is Working for You

What’s your best tax strategy for 2023? Have highly qualified people do your taxes. For free.

Crazy talk, you say? Not at all. As long as you don’t have a complex return — say, a small business with employees or alternative minimum tax — it’s quite likely you can get your taxes done for free. One way is through AARP Foundation Tax-Aide, the nation's largest free filing program, which kicked off this month.

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We’re proud that our work to bring relief from high heating and electric bills will pay off this winter for consumers in Maine, New York, Illinois and other states. 

With energy costs reaching record highs, we’ve been urging officials to reject unnecessary rate hikes and boost funding for programs that help people stay warm and keep the lights on.
 
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We keep hearing that we as a country have moved on from COVID. But we are here to tell you: nurses have not. This pandemic has changed our profession forever. For three very long years, nurses have shown up again and again, every single day, to provide care for those in need, often at the expense of their own health and wellbeing. They have tapped into their well of compassion and resilience to meet the challenges and attempt to keep you safe and help you heal. And many nurses have given more than anyone should be expected to give—including their lives.

Nurses across the country are exhausted, discouraged and are leaving their roles or the profession in droves. Maybe you’ve seen the headlines about the nursing shortage reaching crisis levels. It is time for a re-calibration. Americans have identified nurses as the most trusted profession, in or out of health care, for two decades. It is time to back that sentiment up with action.

AARP Public Policy Institute Director Susan C. Reinhard co-authored this story.

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More than 90 percent of all U.S. deaths from COVID-19 have been among people 50 and older. Those deaths continue at a rate of nearly 1,000 a week, which is why we oppose efforts in Congress to prematurely end the public health emergency (PHE) that has been in place since the start of the pandemic. 

“Older Americans rely on programs and flexibilities authorized under the PHE to keep them safe, such as Medicare coverage of at-home COVID tests and coverage of certain treatments,” Bill Sweeney, AARP senior vice president of government affairs, wrote in a letter to House lawmakers Tuesday. “Their health and well-being should be valued as much as Americans of any other age group.” 

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We’ve teamed with AARP Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to award more than $700,000 for projects to improve health equity through nursing.

The Health Equity Innovations Fund Awards will help launch or expand 16 projects in California, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Tennessee, Utah, Wisconsin, West Virginia and the District of Columbia. 

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AARP CEO Jo Ann Jenkins is urging Congress to keep cuts to Social Security and Medicare off the table as it moves toward a deal to raise or suspend the debt limit.

“Leaders in both parties – President Biden, former President Trump, Speaker McCarthy, Majority Leader Schumer and Leader Jeffries – agree with AARP that Social Security and Medicare must not be cut as part of any debt deal,” Jenkins said in a statement Wednesday. “AARP will fight any cuts to the Social Security and Medicare benefits workers and retirees have paid into and earned.” 

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AARP and AARP Foundation have for years been fighting against the inappropriate use of antipsychotic drugs to chemically restrain residents in nursing homes, particularly residents with dementia. 

So we applaud the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for announcing new measures last week aimed at curbing the misuse of these powerful drugs.

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We’re asking the Social Security Administration (SSA) to put customer service on the front burner now that Congress and the Biden administration have approved a $785 million budget increase for the agency.

AARP members sent Congress more than 200,000 emails last year urging it to approve more funding for customer service issues amid historically high wait times and a backlog in disability claims. 

Last week, we wrote to SSA Acting Commissioner Kilolo Kijakazi, calling on her to make customer service a top priority.

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