A low-cost medical program for the uninsured in suburban Cook County will be able to serve 5,000 new clients this year thanks to a $3 million allocation from the State of Illinois.
Access to Care, a Westchester-based non-profit group, said the legislature provided the money in a bipartisan endorsement of the program’s efforts to reach the growing number of uninsured in suburban Cook County.
Access to Care lets patients pay $5 for certain doctor’s office visits, $5 for basic lab tests and X-rays and $10 to $30 for certain prescription drugs. There is an annual enrollment fee of $20 to $50, depending on family size.
Nearly 360,000 of the more than 900,000 uninsured residents of Cook County are in its suburbs, Access to Care said. In Illinois there are about 1.8 million uninsured of the estimated 45 million uninsured in the U.S., the most recent U.S. Census Bureau figures show.
Last year Access to Care provided medical services to nearly 14,000 people and it has about 2,800 on its waiting list.
“It will take us about three to four months to process those applications [on the waiting list] first,” said Katie Barnickel, spokeswoman for Access to Care. “Obviously, they have been waiting, so they get first priority. After that, applicants will be processed in the normal four to six weeks time.”
Access to Care, which was created in 1988 by several Cook County government, health and economic groups, has largely been funded by the Cook County Board, which provided about $2.7 million for this year. Another $2 million comes from a mix of suburban townships and villages, community groups and private donors.
Given the popularity of the program, Access to Care officials are now trying to get the word out.
“We are so excited that we will be able to care for all of these people; we just now have to find them,” Barnickel said. “We know they are there.”
Although the bulk of Access to Care’s efforts are geared toward the uninsured in suburban Cook County, it has a pilot program that began last year in an area of northwest Chicago that lacks low-cost outpatient medical services such as county-supported clinics.
The pilot program serves the area of Chicago west of Pulaski Road and north of North Avenue.
For eligibility questions, call Access to Care at 708-531-0680.
More Top Picks Tennis Rackets
———-
Hear Bruce Japsen on WBBM-AM 780 at 6:21 p.m. and 10:22 p.m. Mondays and 11:20 a.m. Saturdays.