Free Uber rides are helping Hartford residents get to lifesaving medical care

[Excerpt from feature article by Cris Villalonga-Vivoni, July 17, 2026]

Angel Lorenzana is at the doctor’s office multiple times a week between dialysis treatment, iron injections and primary care. All the appointments are vital to his care, but without reliable transportation, he was picking and choosing which doctor to see first.

​He and his partner, Nilda Herrera, don’t have a car, and traveling via public transit for every appointment quickly adds up, especially while living on a fixed income.

​Over the past year, however, the couple has been relying on a program through Hartford Public Library that offers city residents Uber rides and public transit vouchers at no cost. The door-to-door service has been a major help and source of relief over the past year.

​“We shouldn’t have to choose, but when you’re in a situation where you are on a fixed income, you have to choose,” Lorenzana said. “Because … (doctors) are giving you the appointments, but they’re more or less saying, like, ‘You guys got to fend for yourself and find your way to get here.’”

​Lack of access to reliable transportation is a well-known, longstanding barrier to routine healthcare for thousands of families nationwide.

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In Connecticut, around 15% of adults said they don’t have reliable transportation, impacting urban, low-income and Black and Latino residents at twice the rate, according to nonprofit DataHaven.

​It’s an issue that continues to grow in the state, with around 150,000 more adults struggling to reach their destinations than last year. DataHaven also found a 7% increase in the number of adults who missed medical appointments.

​Local municipalities and nonprofits across Connecticut are working to address transportation as a barrier to healthcare by offering no-cost or discounted rides. The state’s Medicaid also offers free nonemergency medical transport for residents.

​Many of the programs, however, have strict eligibility qualifications or are limited in where they can go. Lorenzana, for example, doesn’t qualify for Medicaid, explaining that their fixed income is too high to meet the income eligibility requirements. If they want to qualify for that coverage, he said, they’d actively have to “spend down,” or reduce their excess income.

​Hartford Public Library launched the Health on the Go program in May 2025 with grant funding from the Cigna Group Foundation to help address the transportation gap in Hartford.

​It offers no-cost rides and vouchers for Hartford residents who don’t have reliable transportation to medical appointments, fitness programs, mobile medical care, and transportation assistance. They work in partnership with CT Transit, Uber Health, Sudor Taino, the Flyy Movement, and local healthcare providers.

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