Cathy Cress

Expert in Aging Life and Geriatric Care Management

Why There So few Caregivers to Recruit in Health Care ??????

Where did the Caregiver all over the Nation Go?

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and 13.7 million workers in roles comparable to direct care lost

their jobs in early 2020, they did not turn to direct care jobs, a recent study found. 

Of the 9.1 million who have now found a new job, “an immeasurably small number of workers” entered the direct care workforce, despite high demand for staff, a study by consulting firm PHI and the Health Workforce Research Center on Long-Term Care at the University of California San Francisco found.

Women, the main caregiver are leaving the workforce in record numbers, and it’s not just a result of the pandemic. 

The pandemic was the catalyst for millions of women leaving their jobs, but not the root cause. Since 2009, the number of women in the workforce has been decreasing because we haven’t made investments in child care and paid leave. Now the gap between men and women in the workforce is widening, while in most other countries the gap is shrinking. That’s leaving our whole economy vulnerable.  

Right now, women’s workforce participation is at 55.9%. The last time it was that low was 1987) 

Workforce for Women Caregivers and all Working women with Children Became Nightmare in Pandemic

The pandemic opened many eyes to the realities of child care in America when schools went virtual and many day-care centers closed. Covid-19 forced millions of working parents, especially women, to leave the workforce to care for their children. Following up on a campaign pledge to “make high-quality child care affordable,” President Joe Biden has asked Congress for hundreds of billions of dollars for early childhood care and education.

 

 

If You Are a Woman or Work In Aging Call Your Congressman

Care Infrastructure may be dead if folks in health care and older constituents do not contact their congressman and tell them to support this bill. They control the votes for the bill and you have to let them know you will only vote for them if they do. Common Cause has this easy way to find and contact your congressman  If you believe in Medicare and senior’s right  to not have their teeth rot, not hear their grandkids or be unable to read a book- please do it now

 

 

 

3 Congressmen Blocking Bill to Lower Drug Prices Needed for Seniors

 

Congress Lowering Drug prices Biden’s Goal in Infrastructure Bill

Three Congressman voted against President Biden effort to lower drug prices, an issue that overwhelmingly affects seniors. Biden wants Medicare to be granted the power to negotiate lower drug prices, have pharmaceutical companies to face penalties if they raise prices faster than inflation, and a new cap on how much Medicare recipients have to spend on medications. 

3 Moderate Democrats Plus all Republicans Oppose Biden’s Drug Price Affordability Bill

Yet when the Energy and Commerce vote on the drug-pricing language came up on Biden drug price

reduction plan this month the vote was 29-29, with three moderate Democrats joining Republicans to oppose it: Reps. Scott Peters of California, Kathleen Rice of New York and Oregon’s Schrader. Tie votes in Congress are usually insufficient to keep legislative provisions alive. 

Schrader, who inherited a fortune from his grandfather who was a top executive at pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, has accepted large donations from big pharma during his seven terms in Congress.

 

Drug Price Soar While Seniors Can’t Afford Living in Fear

Outrage of older  patients over soaring drug prices has done little if anything to slow medication prices ascent, with the retail price tag for brand name drugs widely used by older Americans

jumping by an average of 15.5 percent in 2015 — the fourth straight year with a double-digit increase, a new AARP Public Policy Institute report finds.

Drug price increases over the past 10 years, that AARP executive vice president for policy, strategy and international affairs called “just shocking,” included Ativan 1 mg tablets, the anti-anxiety drug, with price hikes of up to 2,873 percent between 2006 and 2015, and the antidepressant Wellbutrin XL 300 mg tablets, which increased by 1,185 percent. The retail price of Humulin U-500, a short-acting insulin product used to

treat diabetes, rose by 538 percent over the past 10 years, most of that in the past five years.

Seniors Also Pay over $4000 a Year for Health Insurance

That’s on top of the roughly $4,400 per year they paid for health insurance premiums and other healthcare services such as long-term care and visits to the doctor. Some seniors, though, may pay much more for their medications

 

Geriatric Care Managers Call Your Congress Person

Geriatric Care Managers who understand the importance of passing this bill. So call your Congressman and tell her him to vote for this bill, which so needed by elders in the US. Here is an easy way to do that 

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