{"id":431835,"date":"2025-12-07T21:41:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T21:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/431835\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T21:41:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T21:41:10","slug":"woman-helped-by-healthlink-defends-necessity-of-program-thats-under-scrutiny-by-some-city-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/431835\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman helped by HealthLink defends necessity of program that\u2019s under scrutiny by some city leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 Itiyah Yisrael is just like you: a mother, a wife, and a woman with a career spanning more than 20 years.<\/p>\n

But everything changed when she got sick\u2014after opting out of her job\u2019s health insurance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was too high,\u201d Yisrael explained. \u201cIt was almost $250 per pay period.\u201d<\/p>\n

Without coverage, Yisrael ended up in the hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy blood pressure dropped really low. I was having syncope episodes where I was feeling like I was going to faint,\u201d Yisrael recounted.<\/p>\n

Then things got worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot too long after that, I ended up losing my position. So now I don\u2019t have income, and I don\u2019t have medical insurance, which is all scary within itself,\u201d Yisrael said. <\/p>\n

While hospitalized, Yisrael was referred to Jacksonville\u2019s HealthLink program. She called it a lifeline during one of her toughest moments.<\/p>\n

The program connects uninsured residents with doctors free of charge\u2014aiming to keep people out of busy and expensive emergency rooms. <\/p>\n

But the program is under scrutiny.<\/p>\n

City Councilman Rory Diamond raised concerns about possible misuse of taxpayer funds, conflicts of interest, and even allegations of fraud involving Telescope Health\u2014the company running HealthLink. <\/p>\n

He outlined those concerns in a letter to Duval DOGE Committee Chair Ron Salem and is asking for a review of the program.<\/p>\n

So far, Diamond told News4JAX, no information has been released about any potential criminal misuse of funds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why we do the investigation,\u201d Diamond said. \u201cWe can get to the bottom of it and answer that question pretty easily.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Yisrael, the debate highlights a disconnect between city leaders who argue the program is an unnecessary expense and residents like her who rely on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI completely beg to differ, because like me, someone who has had medical insurance for all my working life, that I wasn\u2019t able to afford it, does that mean now I don\u2019t deserve health care?\u201d Yisrael said.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Itiyah Yisrael is just like you: a mother, a wife, and a woman with a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":431836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,3188,723,210,200555,7310,80,200556,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-431835","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-fl","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-healthlink","13":"tag-jacksonville","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-telescope-health","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115680463234018214","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}