A good deed

US: Most Americans have health insurance through their employers. So when workers lose their jobs, they often lose their health insurance, and may be unable to pay for the medicines they need. The pharmaceutical company Pfizer has stepped in to help.

According to the National Coalition on Health Care, nearly one in five Americans, about 46 million people, were without health insurance in 2007. Uninsured people may try to save money by avoiding trips to the doctor’s office, but many still depend on prescription medication to treat chronic conditions.

Pfizer is now offering up to a year of free medicine to unemployed Americans. 

Pfizer is now offering up to a year of free medicine to people who have been unemployed since 1 January 2009, who have no policy that covers the cost of medication, and who had been taking a Prizer product for three months before they lost their job.

The offer includes more than 70 of Pfizer’s medications, including the Lipitor cholesterol pill and Viagra for sexual dysfunction. "We are doing what we can to ensure that recent loss of employment does not preclude people from managing their health,”  Pfizer's chief executive officer, Jeffrey Kindler, told The Miami Herald.