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Healthy Connections Network 2003 Community Report
Brochure: Healthy Connections Network
Brochure: Help With Health Care
About Healthy Connections Network
Healthy Connections Network is a 501 (c) (3) collaborative organization that receives operations funding from Summa Health System, Akron General Medical Center and Akron Children's Hospital. Donations from member organizations of the Board of Directors also support the program.
Mission
"To have a healthy community with accessible
health care for all in Summit County."
Goal
"To improve the overall health status of
all residents of the community."
Healthy Connections Network began 1995 when representatives of Summit County’s public and private health and social service organizations convened to discuss an urgent and common concern: the rising number of working poor adults without health care insurance for themselves or their children.
Uninsured in Summit County Lack Access to Timely and Appropriate Health Care
Undeniably the United States has the most technologically advanced medical care system in the world. This system has a great capacity to diagnose and treat disease. Unfortunately, many citizens do not benefit from this system. One in five Americans lacks health insurance and does not have access to a regular source of health care. Those without consistent access to health care may delay seeking care until they are seriously ill. These people are more likely to come to hospital emergency departments as their first point of contact for health care. Emergency department care is costly, so ideally a patient should seek treatment earlier at a physician's office. Delayed care results in poor health outcomes for patients, especially those suffering from chronic illness.
There are an estimated 22,000 people in Summit County who are uninsured for health care, living under 200% of the federal poverty level, and not eligible for Medicaid.
Nearly 16 percent of adults under 65 years are uninsured – virtually unchanged from 1998. About 22 percent of adults in Akron have no insurance, compared to fewer than one in eight in Summit County’s suburbs.
Center for Community Solutions, June, 2005
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“In Summit County’s poorer neighborhoods, whites live almost three years longer than blacks. In more well-to-do neighborhoods, this gap grows into a chasm: Whites live to an average age of 76.4, compared with just 67.1 for blacks.”
Akron Beacon Journal, September 24 2006
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Across the country, a national movement is underway to transform America’s fragmented health care system from the ground up. In Summit County, Healthy Connections Network has worked diligently to assure that someday, all people in the county will have access to comprehensive and coordinated health care services of good quality. Access to appropriate and timely health care promotes health, well-being and productivity. Healthy Connections Network provides a forum where community organizations can continue to work together toward the goal of a healthy community with reduced health disparities.
Project: Access to Care Goal
The purpose of Access to Care is "to mobilize community resources to connect uninsured community members to a regular source of care."
For more information click here: Access to Care Program
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