Easing burden of not having health insurance

For many Americans, health insurance coverage can be a very costly burden. Throughout St. Joseph and Marshall counties, there are at least 13,000 people living without health insurance.

Meijer Pharmacies want to make that burden a little lighter with their free prescription program.

The program began in October of 2006 and since then has given out 30 million prescriptions. In 2015 alone, Meijer dispensed six million free prescriptions. The company's free prescription program was created to help Meijer shoppers regardless of insurance or co-pay so they can get their prescriptions filled.

It started out by covering leading oral generic antibiotics then expanded years later to offer free prenatal vitamins, along with other antibiotics.

Saturday beginning at 11 a.m., there will be 10 different locations throughout St. Joseph and Marshall County where people can stop by and get questions answered and help with enrollment.

The event will go until 2 p.m. and is a new initiative called "Coverage to Care" and is led by the St. Joseph County Public Health Department.

Organizations involved in Saturday's event include Covering Kids and Families, along with United Health Services and others.

For more information on the different locations, click here.