JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Health care professionals in Jacksonville say uninsured people are weighing their health against their wallets.
On Wednesday at JASMYN, nurses and paramedics gave people without health insurance free health care screenings as part of a new initiative by the city called Healthlink Jax, which provides free 24/7 virtual health care. They said people are afraid to go to the doctor because of how expensive it could be.
“Some people, they never see a doctor because they can’t afford it,” said AmeriPro EMT Larry Saintval.
Saintval is now one of the people trying to change that.
“A lot of times when you say ‘free,’ they’re like, ‘Oh no, that’s not free,’” said Lorna Brown, a Healthlink Jax nurse. “I’m like, ‘No, it’s free! Like, it’s free medical care.'”
As part of Healthlink Jax, Saintval and Brown are doing free health screenings for people who don’t have health insurance. They’re screenings that could save people’s lives.
“We’re also seeing a lot of patients that may need surgery and they’ve just been putting it off because they can’t afford the resources,” Brown said. “I have one patient that needed open heart surgery but also got diagnosed with cancer, but need the open heart surgery before they can do the scans for cancer and so then it’s like, ‘How do I go get all this, the resources for this? I don’t have the money.’ And so we’re able to resource them out to Jax Care Connect and they resourced them out to the clinics.”
The city credits its Get Covered Jax campaign for lowering the number of uninsured people in Duval County by 34%. The city says close to 90,000 people in Duval County don't have health insurance.
The Census Bureau finds people without health insurance are more likely to depend on the emergency room for preventable care, which drives up costs for patients and hospitals. Telescope Health, part of Healthlink Jax, said in two months, the program has saved about $500,000 in emergency room visits.
“It’s beautiful to be able to give them that life, give them that gift of health for no cost,” said Brown.
Free health care screenings will be available at Daily Manna at 2669 Edison Ave. in Jacksonville from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Thursday.
Healthlink Jax can be reached by calling 904-925-CARE (2273). Learn more about the program here.
