Wednesday, 17 October 2007

Chicago Clinics Offer Free Prescriptions For Low-Income Residents

CommunityHealth and Erie Family Health Center are two community health clinics in Chicago, Illinois that will be offering free prescription drugs for low-income residents. Through a new program, MedAccess Chicago, the clinics will distribute free medications with the help of several pharmaceutical companies.

Abbott Laboratories, AstraZeneca PLC, Merck & Co., and Norvartis Pharmaceutical Corp. will donate up to $7 million in medications, reported the Chicago Tribune.

More than half of the estimated 35,000 patients that currently go to CommunityHealth and the Erie Center are uninsured. And even though they have access to care, many still cannot afford the daily medications needed to properly manage chronic health problems.

“Our goal is to remove barriers that keep our uninsured patients from filling prescriptions and create opportunities for better control of chronic conditions,” said CEO of the Erie Center, Dr. Lee Francis.

To qualify for the program, families and individuals must be uninsured and earn lower than 200% of the federal poverty level — roughly $40,000 per year for a family of four and $20,000 for individuals, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

By 2012, MedAccess Chicago hopes to fill as many as 100,000 prescriptions, said the executive director of CommunityHealth, Judith Haasis.

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