Accessing medication in rural areas can be a struggle when a town is too small to support a pharmacy. But for those who are disabled or elderly, physically filling prescriptions can be an impossible task — which is why many rely on the Postal Service to deliver their meds.
More than half the people who get their medicine delivered are over the age of 65, according to a report from the National Community Pharmacists Association — and 54 percent of this group takes more than four different types of medication. If the USPS shuts down, then they will be left without an affordable option to access vital drugs.
People with disabilities rely on the Postal Service to mail their prescriptions for similar reasons. Many simply cannot travel to the closest city, let alone leave their houses, to pick up their prescriptions. And a significant number of those who belong to this community are also veterans that have signed up for the Veterans Affairs’s “Meds by Mail” program, which delivers medications to their house. The shutdown of the USPS could ultimately disrupt the services of another government agency that serves a vulnerable population.
“It’s a real challenge, especially as you see a lot more local mom-and-pop-style pharmacies close down,” said Rebecca Cokley, director of the Disability Justice Initiative at the Center for American Progress. “For a lot of people in rural America and people with disabilities, it does make it significantly harder to access medication.”
The situation will grow more dire if the pandemic goes on past September and the Postal Service does shut down, Cokley said. “The fact that the president is talking about closing Post Offices ... and the notion that people would now have to go out to their pharmacy, to their grocery store, instead of being able to stay home and access their medications from home, puts them at greater risk for contracting the virus,” she said.
https://www.vox.com/identities/2020/...ve-communities