CHARLOTTE, N.C. —  According to a recent Mecklenburg County report, one in four of the county's adults don’t have a primary care provider. 

What You Need To Know

  • Mecklenburg County report shows one in four adults in the county don’t have a primary care provider
  • Hispanics have the highest number of people without a primary care provider or insurance
  • Low-cost clinics in the county are helping fill the gap, including Hope Community Clinic

This trend is highest among Hispanics, a group with the lowest number of insured people in the county. 

According to the report, 45% of Hispanics don’t have a primary care provider. 

Dr. Raynard Washington said these check ups are not only preventive, but also keep those uninsured from going to urgent care or the emergency room for primary care needs. 

“It’s really about trying to keep people healthy across their life course and avoid severe illness and complications and ultimately avoid people needing to go to the emergency department for things that really should be managed in the community,” Washington said. 

The report also states 33% of Hispanics are uninsured.

Washington said the lack of employer health care coverage in some industries and citizenship status are some of the reasons. 

“Our undocumented neighbors would be at the greatest risk for not being able to access insurance, but even folks who are here legally but aren’t eligible for programs that help support individuals who can’t afford insurance on their own,” Washington said. 

Low-cost clinics, including Hope Community Clinic, provide primary care services to people who are uninsured or underinsured.

Clinic Director Margie Lugibihl said the report findings mirror what they see in the front lines. 

“With the social determinants of health and the barriers to care and access, big thing is language,” Lugibihl said.

Errol Gonzales is a medical assistant at Hope Community Clinic and a patient. 

Before starting his job at the clinic last year, he hadn't had a primary care provider since he was eight years old. 

“I know there were so many times I didn’t go to a doctor because my mom didn’t speak English, and it’s really hard having a 7-year-old interpret for his own medical appointment,” Gonzales said. 

Thanks to his primary care provider at Hope Community Clinic, he found out he had high blood pressure. 

“There's a lot of stuff you don’t know unless you get checked,” Gonzales said. 

Gonzales doesn’t have insurance. He said the cost and not knowing much about the process of buying insurance deterred him. 

“The process being complicated.. and there were also other concerns that I had that were far more pressing, like doing school,” Gonzales said. 

Gonzales plans to start medical school this summer and this experience is inspiring him to go into family medicine. 

“I’ve gotten so much joy from being able to invest in patients the way I feel my family and I deserved to be invested in growing up,” Gonzales said. 

Access to health care remains a priority for Mecklenburg County this year. Other than investing over $2 million in low-cost clinics, it plans to increase awareness of their existence. Washington said the county has also been supportive of Medicaid expansion in North Carolina.