Lexington, KY – In 2009, BUILD discovered that at least 40,000 Lexington adults did not have health insurance. We also learned that of these adults, only a quarter of them had access to primary care. According to the local hospitals, the lack of routine primary care was costing the community millions of dollars each year. In 2007, at BUILD’s Action, the Fayette County Health Department committed to add staff and hours to see 700 additional patients per month. In April 2008, BUILD turned out 1,100 people to their Nehemiah Action where the Director of Primary Care at the Fayette County Health Department and representatives from local hospitals and nonprofit clinics committed to meeting primary care needs for an additional 6,000 uninsured adults. Due to the work of BUILD over a number of years, the Fayette County Health Department and others now annually provide primary care to 14,000 people that would otherwise not have healthcare. Each year, close to 8 million dollars worth of healthcare is provided to the uninsured in Lexington as a direct result of BUILD’s efforts.
