Partnership for Prescription Assistance helps uninsured By Gary Pelletier Director, Pfizer Helpful Answers The issue of health care is once again front and center. Nearly 47 million Americans are uninsured, at a cost of at least 18,000 lives each year.Why should New Jersey residents care? The growing health-care crisis in the United States is reflected here at home. Nearly one in seven New Jerseyans are living without health insurance. What may surprise you is just who is uninsured.The majority of uninsured Americans come from working families. Nearly seven out of 10 uninsured New Jersey families include at least one person who is employed full time. The issue of uninsurance and lack of access to quality care is complicated. In some states, cutbacks are reducing health care services for low-income patients. In the private sector, employees are losing their health benefits when insurance premiums increase.As a result, you may know a friend or family member who can no longer afford medical attention that could help them prevent or manage disease. The health consequences of being uninsured can be devastating. Uninsured Americans are more likely to be hospitalized or die from avoidable health problems. For this reason, hospitals bear a large portion of the cost of caring for uninsured Americans. In 2006, alone, hospitals provided more than $31 billion worth of health-care services to the uninsured, a cost that they were unable to recover. Fortunately, there are programs available for uninsured Americans who need help paying for medicine.One way that people without health insurance may be able to access their medicines is through the Partnership for Prescription Assistance (PPA), a nationwide effort sponsored by America's pharmaceutical research companies that helps low-income, uninsured and underinsured patients access prescription medicines. The PPA also offers a service to inform patients about free health-care clinics in their communities. For more information about 475 public and private patient assistance programs and free health-care clinics, visit www.PPARx.org or call 888-4PPA-NOW. One such program, Pfizer Helpful Answers, has helped more than 5 million people in just the past five years. Uninsured Americans can get help paying for their Pfizer medicines, no matter their age or income, by calling 866-706-2400 or by visiting www.PfizerHelpfulAnswers. com.