Governor Napolitano unveiled the Arizona Health Guide: Resources for the Uninsured at a briefing for health and social service providers held at the State Capitol on August 11th. The Guide is a resource for Arizona residents who are uninsured or underinsured that helps to connect them to affordable health care resources throughout the state. The project was funded entirely by private donations provided by the National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN) through a partnership with Pfizer Helpful Answers®.
“The new Arizona Health Guide is a great resource for Arizona families. It will link Arizonans to services in their communities that they may not have known even existed,” said Governor Napolitano. “Information on senior services, discount dental networks or affordable care for the uninsured will be in the palm of their hand.”
The release of the Guide follows the June 2008 launch of a statewide awareness campaign aimed at linking citizens to assistance in four major economic areas: housing, employment, family stress, and household bills. Titled Feeling the Economic Crunch? Find the Help You Need, the awareness campaign focuses on individuals currently experiencing financial stress who are not used to reaching out for help or who may not know where to turn.
Both the Arizona Health Guide and information about the awareness campaign are available online at: az211.gov.
The Arizona Health Guide is also available to Arizonans in more than 260 public and private community health centers, social service organizations and health facilities across the state. The Guide is a comprehensive listing of health care resources that are available to help uninsured residents of Arizona meet their health care needs, providing contact information and health tips in an easy-to-use and easy-to-read format in both English and Spanish.
“We look forward to working with our patients, introducing them to this new Guide and helping them find exactly what they need,” said Anabell Castro, president of the Phoenix Chapter of NAHN. “Our nurses take pride in being a trusted source of information for their patients, so being able to share this with them will only further that relationship.”
The National Association of Hispanic Nurses has partnered with Pfizer Helpful Answers this year to help spread the word about health care resources available to the uninsured and underinsured, including patient assistance programs. That partnership extended to the local Phoenix Chapter, which helped produce the Arizona Health Guide.
“We are happy to have worked with the National Association of Hispanic Nurses and the Governor’s Office to help the uninsured residents of Arizona through the creation of the Arizona Health Guide,” said Gary Pelletier of Pfizer Helpful Answers. “Pfizer Helpful Answers is committed to helping America ’s uninsured population and we welcome opportunities to inform and educate the public about the program and other resources that can help people stay healthy.”
There are more than 1 million people (18% of Arizona’s population) who are uninsured. With the help Pfizer Helpful Answers in 2007, more than 10,100 uninsured people in Arizona received $4.8 million worth of Pfizer medicines for free or at a savings.