(NAPSI)—Over 61 million people are enrolled in Medicare. As of October 15, individuals age 65 and older can make changes to their coverage and enroll in a Medicare plan during the annual open enrollment period, which lasts until December 7.

During this time, consumers can change from one Medicare Advantage or prescription drug plan to another. If you’re already enrolled in original Medicare, you can switch to a private Medicare Advantage plan, or you can drop your existing Medicare Advantage plan to return to original Medicare.

Making sense of Medicare may not be easy for many and can often be overwhelming if you don’t know where to find information. In fact, nearly half (47%) of Americans don’t have familiarity with Medicare Advantage insurance, according to research from The Center for a Secure Retirement and Bankers Life.

How you enroll or switch Medicare plans may be different this year. Enrollment sometimes happens face-to-face where it’s easier to ask questions. However, whether you’re meeting in-person or virtually, you can familiarize yourself with the available options and make a more informed decision. Continue reading →

Worried woman looking at computer screen

(NAPSI)—For the approximate 23 million women who balance caring for an aging parent with going to work, and often raising children of their own, there is little recognition and not enough support. These women themselves often don’t think of what they do as caregiving; they just consider themselves dutiful daughters. Yet they average 24.4 hours of unpaid care a week, from buying groceries, to managing medication, helping with household chores, assisting their parents with bathing and dressing, and driving to appointments. Many are even providing complex medical tasks, with little or no training, such as administering injections, monitoring vital signs, caring for wounds or cleaning feeding tubes. Collectively, they provide $470 billion in unpaid care, according to the AARP.

Often, these women provide this care at great cost to their careers. Working daughters, much like working mothers, may need to switch to a less demanding job, take time off or quit work altogether. They lose wages and job-related benefits costing them, on average, $304,000 in lost wages and benefits while spending nearly 20 percent of their own income on caregiving.

To give these unsung heroes recognition and much needed support, it’s important to make the care they give compatible with their careers. With 10,000 people turning 65 every day in the United States, the caregiving workforce is only going to grow. Smart businesses must examine policies and corporate cultures to create environments where caregivers can thrive. Working daughters need flexibility, paid family leave policies and expanding eligibility requirements. They need affordable, quality eldercare options.

Learn more at www.workingdaughter.com.

by Emily McGrath

(NAPSI)—If you have a job—or wish you did—or a child in school, a new way of looking at technology, education and the world of work may prove good news for you.

COVID-19 has deeply affected both the American workforce and higher education, with community college enrollment down nationwide. This poses a dire challenge, as community colleges serve as a critical pipeline in making universities and advanced fields accessible to a broader population, while also exposing students to new educational pathways across various industries. With enrollment down and workforce numbers at a tipping point, these institutions of opportunity need momentum to drive motivation back to where it was before the pandemic—starting with the next generation of diverse advanced manufacturing workers.

Thanks to explosive growth in such sectors as flexible hybrid electronics (FHE), in the next few years industry leaders will serve as intermediaries between technical fields of the future and the workforce that’s needed. Equipping community colleges with programs that serve this transition will help bolster a new American workforce, powered by advanced manufacturing and FHE and other technology. Increased demand for both awareness-boosting and skill-building programs will help drive technology development and subsequent commercial proliferation of FHE and the greater advanced manufacturing industry.

While the tech workforce hasn’t been immune to disruption from COVID-19, it remains a field expected to have one of the biggest demands for a skilled workforce in the future. The pandemic has temporarily reduced that workforce; there’s a promising future for advanced manufacturing in 2021 and beyond.  Continue reading →

(NAPSI)—Many older Americans say they feel depressed—yet the majority of them are not planning to get help, according to a new national survey—though it could make a tremendous difference in their health and well-being.

With the onset of colder weather, fewer daylight hours, and the effect of the pandemic on holiday celebrations and traditions, more seniors than ever could be struggling with depression.

The GeneSight Mental Health Monitor reported that about two-thirds of adults 65 and older who are concerned they may be suffering from depression say they won’t seek treatment. That’s compared to fewer than half of adults over age 18. In addition, three in 10 of these older adults think “they can just snap out of it.”

“The ‘pull yourself up by your bootstraps’ mindset and reluctance to talk about mental health may be preventing seniors from getting the help they need,” said Dr. Mark Pollack, chief medical officer of Myriad Neuroscience, makers of the GeneSight test, a genetic measure that identifies potential gene-drug interactions for depression medication. “People seek treatment for conditions like heart disease, high blood pressure or diabetes. Depression is no different. It is an illness that can and should be treated.”

One GeneSight patient, Carmala Walgren, a 74-year-old resident of New York, agrees that depression should be treated regardless of age.

“There is such a stigma about depression among people my age,” said Walgren. “It is worth it to find treatment that helps you.”  Continue reading →