LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Dakierra Nelson didn't know where to turn when she moved to Las Vegas and needed health care.
Without insurance, most options were non-starters. But then she discovered the Gavin J. Goorjian Community Health Center on Las Vegas Boulevard South.
WATCH| Steve Sebelius talks to locals who habe received care from The Goorjian Center
There, Nelson found all the care she needed, from prescriptions to behavioral health providers, all available to members of the LGBTQIA community — and for everyone else in town as well.
"I was in a rough patch whenever I first came to Las Vegas, and didn't know where I could seek health care, and then I came here, and they welcomed me with open arms, even though I didn't have insurance, and I still was able to see somebody," Nelson said.
Nelson was a panelist Monday at the health center's recognition of National Public Health Awareness Week, which focused on a federal program that allows community health clinics to buy prescription medication at significantly discounted rates.
The Goorjian Center offers a full range of services, from blood tests to a pharmacy to primary health care, mammograms, ultrasounds and behavioral health, in a three-level building designed to be welcoming to the community.
Nelson's experience was shared by fellow panelist Sarah Amie Dorsey, who said she experienced good health care in Northern California, but that it felt impersonal, like "factory medicine."
Now, she says. she's an evangelist for the health center. "I think that a lot of people are intimidated by not having health insurance, not paying for it out of pocket or having it through a job and think they can't get health care, but they can," she said. "They can get it for as little as nothing here at the clinic."
But that now may be in jeopardy, as officials in Washington, D.C. contemplate changes to the so-called 340B program.
Rep. Dina Titus — another panelist at Monday's program — said she's signed a letter with a bipartisan assortment of more than 150 of her colleagues, urging the Department of Health and Human Services to leave the program intact.
Titus says she's also seeking to preserve 340B in the funding bill for the department that will be taken up in the new fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1.
But, Titus told the crowd, supporters of the program are definitely on defense in the face of cuts to Affordable Care Act subsidies, new work requirements in Medicaid and other potential funding reductions to the federal health care budget. She encouraged them to contact members of Congress to keep the program going.
For Dr. Leana Ramirez, the chief health care officer for the Goorjian center, 340B is a lifeline for the community.
"We are able to offer complete patient care and that's through the 340B program," she said. "So with that, we're looking at transportation. We cover labs. We cover things that maybe the insurance doesn't cover, just to make sure that the patients get all of the health care needs met that they're here seeking for."
The Goorjian Center is affiliated with The LGBTQ+ Center of Las Vegas, which pioneered health care with a full clinic at its Maryland Parkway location.
To provide care, the Center relies on grants, donations and other help. If you're interested in making a donation, you can do so at the Center's website, thecenterlv.org, or go directly to the donations page.
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