CNN, December 24, 2020.
Chicago (CNN)Rochelle Sykes worries that her west side Chicago neighborhood will be left out when the Covid-19 vaccine becomes widely available next year.
“It’s a national phenomenon,” said Dima Qato, the lead author of the study of Chicago drug stores and an associate professor at the University of Southern California School of Pharmacy.
Pharmacies in low-income, minority neighborhoods in urban areas around the country are at most risk to close, Qato said. This is largely because of lower reimbursement rates pharmacies are paid for prescriptions from Medicare and Medicaid compared with private insurance plans, she said. Non-elderly Black people are likelier to have Medicaid compared to White people, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation.