In the 1950s, the retired California educator Ethel Andrus sought affordable health insurance for retired teachers over 65. Every insurer she approached decided the risk was not worth taking. Andrus saw this as a problem to solve.
By the time Medicare was signed into law in 1965, about half of all seniors had no hospital insurance. For an older American without coverage, a serious illness was paid for out of savings, by family or not at all.
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Andrus’ story
Andrus had already made history once. In 1916 she became principal of Lincoln High School in Los Angeles, the first woman to lead a major urban high school in California. She retired in the 1940s to care for her mother and began volunteering with the California Retired Teachers Association.
That work took her to the door of a former Spanish teacher who had fallen ill. The woman was living in a converted chicken coop, getting by on a pension too small to cover decent housing or medical care. Andrus was appalled.
In 1947, Andrus founded the National Retired Teachers Association to fight for better pensions, decent housing and health coverage. A few years later, she received the 42 rejections.
Leonard Davis, an agent with Continental Casualty, agreed to try a pilot plan for the association’s New York members at about $5 a month. It worked well enough to go national. On July 1, 1956, the association launched what AARP describes as the first nationwide group health plan for older Americans.
Then letters started arriving from retirees who were not teachers, asking how they could get the same coverage. Andrus began considering an organization for all California retirees. Davis pushed the idea further and asked why not make it national.
On July 1, 1958, she incorporated the American Association of Retired Persons, open to anyone 55 or older for $2 a year. That fall it published the first issue of Modern Maturity, now AARP The Magazine.
Medicare finally arrived in 1965. Andrus died two years later at 85.
AARP history
Over the years, the organization expanded its remit. In 1968, it launched Tax-Aide, a free tax-preparation program staffed by volunteers. It added member discounts and took on auto insurers that canceled policies or raised premiums once a driver turned 65.
The retired teachers’ association formally merged into AARP in 1982. Two years later, AARP lowered its eligibility age from 55 to 50, and membership climbed quickly. In 1999, the group shortened its name to AARP, to remove the emphasis on retirement as many members were still working.
Its political weight grew with its membership, and so did the backlash when members disagreed. When AARP backed the 2003 legislation that created the Medicare Part D drug benefit, which also barred Medicare from negotiating drug prices, at least 45,000 members quit in protest. AARP later lobbied for the negotiating power Congress granted in 2022.
AARP now
In the mid-2020s, anyone 18 or older can join, and AARP has nearly 38 million members. It lobbies on Social Security, Medicare, drug prices and age discrimination. The organization continues to endorse insurance products rather than providing them itself.
One of its biggest free services doesn’t require joining. Tax-Aide has prepared returns for free since 1968 and has served more than 82 million people. In the 2025 tax season, over 28,000 volunteers helped over 1.7 million taxpayers claim more than $1.3 billion in refunds and credits. The program focuses on older adults with low to moderate incomes, but it is open to anyone, member or not.
AARP is well-known for its discounts. These trace back to Andrus. In 1959, she launched a drug-buying service that pooled members’ orders to buy directly from manufacturers, promising savings of at least 25%.
Membership unlocks discounts on dining, hotels, travel, eyeglasses, prescriptions and more. For $15/year with auto-renewal, you can save hundreds.
Andrus set out to solve a problem the private insurance market would not solve for retired teachers, betting that older Americans had more bargaining power together than alone. AARP still uses its size to negotiate deals, then permits chosen companies to carry its name. It has real influence in Washington.
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