Lack of medical health insurance impacts hundreds of Tennesseans

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – Greater than 600,000 persons are uninsured or underinsured in Tennessee, in keeping with Kaiser Household Basis.

Ascension Saint Thomas mentioned many Tennesseans can’t afford primary well being care.

“People who find themselves uninsured or underinsured they face a variety of well being challenges,” Household Nurse Practitioner Nancy Anness mentioned. “As a household nurse practitioner, I see this each time I’m within the clinic.”

Anness additional explains what these challenges are.

“They delay getting well being care. They may are available in with no preventative care, by no means had a screening mammogram, by no means had a screening colonoscopy,” she mentioned.

That delay can have detrimental results on one’s well being.

Anness mentioned there are sources that assist folks get entry to well being care.

“People who find themselves uninsured and people who find themselves 250% in poverty family, they will undergo Undertaking Entry, discover a major care supplier who will see the affected person at both low value or no value,” she mentioned.

Undertaking Entry is a program that serves Center Tennessee. You possibly can join with this system by going to the Lentz Public Well being Middle on Charlotte Pike in Nashville.

Anness support you can even discover well being clinics that serve uninsured and underinsured folks. For those who’re uninsured, Anness mentioned there are instruments, and he or she urges folks to make use of them.

“With out your well being, you may’t be productive, and you may’t actually reside out your function in life,” she mentioned.

Ascension Saint Thomas mentioned one other useful resource is its free well being care, imaginative and prescient and dental clinic occurring Saturday at The Fairgrounds Nashville from 8 a.m. till 2 p.m. No insurance coverage or fee is required to get service. Metro’s WeGo Transit will even provide free bus fare when you’re going to the clinic.

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