Keeping York healthy starts with access to medication
Dr. Jason Long
Family First Pharmacy
In recent years, pharmacies across Pennsylvania, including here in York County, have been closing at an alarming rate. A
2025 investigation found 800 licensed pharmacies have shut down in Pennsylvania since 2020, widening health disparities and reducing access to essential medication. Read the full Op-Ed here: Keeping York healthy starts with access to medication
John Keating doesn’t think he’d be alive today if he’d gotten sick under President Donald Trump’s His reasons are the same ones keeping healthcare leaders in rural Adams County, Pennsylvania, up at night as they scramble to confront potentially catastrophic consequences from the tax law just over a year from now, when more than $1 trillion will begin disappearing from the healthcare system. “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
YORK COUNTY, Pa. (WHP) — Family First Health is opening a new pharmacy in York County located on South George Street with hopes of allowing more residents access to affordable medications. The organization says that Pennsylvania is a pharmacy desert.
“The void of pharmacy services locally and impede someone’s health overall,” said Family First Health CEO Jenny Englerth
.
Read the full article here.
YORK COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM)– Chain pharmacies are continuing to close throughout the Midstate, but there is some good news from York County.
Rite Aid and CVS locations have been closing all across the Midstate in recent months, leaving local Pennsylvanians without reliable access to medication.
The closures of pharmacies have been a trend throughout the country. Individuals who live locally or in rural areas are feeling the effects of this more, as their access to necessary medication is being cut off.
While things may look bad in many parts of the Midstate, one York County business plans to open its own pharmacy inside its doors.
Non-profit Family First Health in York City is going to be opening its own pharmacy in its building. While it’s only one location, Family First Health aims to compensate for the recent closures in the area.
Other independent pharmacies across the midstate are following suit, putting up signs that say “accepting Rite Aid customers.”
Read the full article here.
The organization is set to launch an in-house pharmacy to reduce medical barriers for residents. YORK, Pa. –Recently, two pharmacies in York have closed, and Family First Health says the city is now a pharmacy desert. To help, the organization is set to launch an in-house pharmacy this fall at its George Street Center at 116 S. George St.
According to the city’s community health assessment, more than 22% of the city’s residents face poverty, and close to one in five households don’t have access to a vehicle, which could make it a challenge to access medication.
Read the full article here.
Family First Pharmacy is set to open by the end of September on South George Street in York, aiming to provide essential healthcare services and low-cost medication to residents affected by recent pharmacy closures.
“It’s a real, tangible step toward better health for our community,” said Rep. Carol Hill-Evans of the 95th District in York County.
Family First said a pharmacy desert is when a person lives in a place where the closest pharmacy is more than a mile from their home or work. With the closures of several chain pharmacies in York in the past few months, the majority of the city falls into that category.
Read the full article here
In recent years, 17 Rite Aid stores have closed in York County, including one in the city of York. No other county in the region was hit harder by Rite Aid store closings.
But a new pharmacy is slated to open this fall in downtown York. It won’t replace 17 locations, but at a time when pharmacy closings have been happening rapidly, it’s good news when one is opening.
“Family First Pharmacy is a direct investment in the health of our community,” Jason Long, lead pharmacist at Family First Pharmacy, said in a news release. “We know that cost, time, and coordination are some of the biggest barriers to patients filling prescriptions. By offering affordable medications and immediate access in the same place where patients receive care, we’re simplifying the process and improving outcomes.”
Read the full article here
A new, on-site pharmacy is opening in downtown York this fall.
Family First Health, focused on community-based healthcare, will open Family First Pharmacy, an on-site pharmacy, according to a news release.
Located on the first floor of the George Street Center in the heart of downtown York, the pharmacy will be open to all individuals regardless of insurance status or income. Family First Pharmacy will offer prescriptions on a sliding scale for uninsured and underinsured patients, helping to remove cost barriers to needed medications.
“Family First Pharmacy is a direct investment in the health of our community,” said Dr. Jason Long, lead pharmacist at Family First Pharmacy. “We know that cost, time, and coordination are some of the biggest barriers to patients filling prescriptions. By offering affordable medications and immediate access in the same place where patients receive care, we’re simplifying the process and improving outcomes.”
Read the full article here: https://www.ydr.com/story/news/local/2025/07/31/family-first-health-to-open-pharmacy-in-downtown-york-pa-this-fall/85437927007/
Perry voted to gut Medicaid and explode the national debt – all so that he could fund tax cuts for billionaires
Scott Perry cast a decisive vote for Republicans’ Big, Ugly Bill, and now his Central Pennsylvania constituents are reading about just how devastating it could be for their communities.
The York Daily Record reports that thousands of Perry’s constituents could lose their health care and food assistance. The York Dispatch Editorial Board torches Perry’s budget bill as “nothing less than a giveaway to the wealthiest Americans and powerful corporations.” And the Dispatch reports that Perry’s vote will “raise the federal deficit,” despite his faux posturing as a deficit hawk.
See the brutal local coverage for yourself:
According to the governor’s projections, 18,720 residents of York County Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Perry’s 10th Congressional District will lose Medicaid coverage and 6,029 will lose SNAP benefits
“Pennsylvania can’t backfill this. We can’t fix this for them,” Shapiro said, referring to the federal legislators who approved of the bill and sent it to the president, who signed it into law. “They are taking billions of dollars away from Pennsylvania, and we can’t make up for that. This is our sad, new reality … and the consequences hang on them.”
Masked in patriotic flourish and rhetorical sleight of hand, this legislation is nothing less than a giveaway to the wealthiest Americans and powerful corporations at the expense of the poor, the sick and future generations.
More than 11 million people could lose health insurance. Another 3 million may lose SNAP benefits, including parents of teenagers now forced to work to qualify for food stamps. More than 13% of York County residents currently rely on SNAP benefits, incidentally. Nearly 21% are on Medicaid.
We should call it what it is: a tax on our conscience, a debt on our democracy, and a disgrace to the ideals we claim to celebrate.
One in five York County residents are on Medicaid. Thirteen percent, meanwhile, rely on SNAP food assistance. Those two facts have raised alarm among some residents and social service agencies after President Trump signed his so-called “big, beautiful bill” that calls for significant reductions to both programs.
Jenny Englerth, president and CEO of Family First Health, the York-based community health entity that serves vulnerable populations, said health care costs will increase for everyone as the number of uninsured people grows.
[Perry] touted the legislation as ‘America first’ despite the bill being anticipated to raise the federal deficit over the next several years
With smaller, rural hospitals already thin on resources, officials with the Hospital and Health system Association of Pennsylvania see the legislation destabilizing the remote facilities.
Read the article here.
