Chicago Tribune, June 14, 2019.
In Chicago, research has shown most of these neighborhoods share a mix of characteristics: Their residents tend to be low-income, immigrants, and/or black and Latino. And, experts argue, given the widening scope of services many pharmacies are providing, including physicals, immunizations, drug counseling, sexually transmitted infection screening and other laboratory testing — even access to naloxone, the medication used to reverse opioid overdose — pharmacies are increasingly important pieces of the national conversation around health care, especially where health inequity already exists.
“A lot of public attention focuses on insurance, but that’s not enough,” said Dima Qato, an assistant professor in the department of pharmacy systems, outcomes and policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who has studied pharmacy access for years. “Even if medications are affordable, if the pharmacy isn’t accessible, they’re not accessible.”