The Beaumont Public Health Department wants to help those who may not have adequate health insurance get up to speed on their vaccinations, medical testing and more.
The health department, located at 3040 College St., will host a free community health fair from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday.
The health fair will help those on Medicaid, the uninsured and underinsured make sure their children are up to date on standard vaccinations, including the measles, mumps, and rubella combination shot — required to attend school, get them vaccinated against COVID-19 and help educate them on things like sexually transmitted infections.
The health fair will also offer diabetes assessments and education, based after getting one’s height, weight, body mass index and blood pressure.
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“There’s a lot of people in our area who are uninsured or underinsured,” health department Director Kenneth Coleman said. “So, we invited a lot of agencies to provide to that particular group of people, where these people can have access to primary care. We’re just trying to meet the needs of our citizens who need access to health care.”
Participating agencies at the fair will include the Jefferson County Health Department, TAN Healthcare, which offers primary care for the underinsured, and Legacy Community Health, which offers primary care for both the uninsured and the underinsured.
The U.S. Census Bureau in 2022 reported that about 5 million Texans – 18% of the state’s population – was uninsured. As of October 2022 according to healthinsurance.org, more than 4.5 million Texans are Medicare beneficiaries. Only California and Florida had larger numbers of people enrolled in Medicare.
Coleman said the health fair will also help people get set up with health insurance of some sort.
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Coleman believes people who attend the health fair will benefit greatly from learning about risks with associated health ailments and the available resources.
“A lot of times, people are just not aware of the resources. Or they’ve heard about the resources, (and) they just don’t know where to begin to make contact,” Coleman said.
For more information about the fair, call the health department at 409-832-4000.
Matt.Hollinshead@beaumontenterprise.com
twitter.com/MattH_717
