Chicago Tribune, December 30, 2020.
A patient had a severe mental illness, but with monthly injections of medication, he stopped hearing voices and was able to live in subsidized housing, according to Dr. Thomas Huggett, of the Lawndale Christian Health Center. Then came the Aetna insurance company’s decision to drop Walgreens from the patient’s Medicaid plan.
“A lot of public attention focuses on insurance, but that’s not enough,” said Dima Qato, now an associate professor at the University of Southern California School of Pharmacy . “Even if medications are affordable, if the pharmacy isn’t accessible, they’re not accessible.”