LAS VEGAS -- Lack of jobs and a tough economy are becoming a death sentence for southern Nevadans too poor to afford health insurance. Paying for treatment or a doctor's visit isn't an option when they need food or rent is due.
But people in poverty do have a place to turn. About 570 medical professionals make up the Volunteers in Medicine of Southern Nevada. Their patients are the definition of poverty -- they don't have insurance, don't have jobs, they're basically at a dead end. The organization is a detour they so desperately need.
Sixty-one-year-old Vicki Sparks extremely high blood pressure. It's hereditary and hard to control, but her finances maybe her biggest ailment.
"I am on disability for multiple sclerosis, but I don't qualify for Medicaid, I don't qualify for Medicare and I don't qualify for Clark County Social Services," she said.
Pedro Marenco must care for his family, but also pay the bills. "Sometimes I didn't go visit a doctor because I didn't have the money."
Census data released this week reeks of desperation. The nation's poverty rate is the worst it's been in almost 30 years.
"It just seems to be continuing to get worse. We just don't see the light at the end of the tunnel," said Dr. Florence Jameson.
Seeing the need, Volunteers in Medicine of Southern Nevada have offered free services to nearly 3,600 people in two years. For half of them, this is the only place they have access to a doctor for everything from a checkup to care for something more serious.
"People are dying every day in Nevada because they have no access to health care, like a third world country," said Dr. Jameson.
Sparks can't pay $200 to 300 a month for insurance. She says her doctor here saved her life. "I probably would have had a stroke by now and be incapacitated for the rest of my life or maybe passed away."
Volunteers in Medicine of Southern Nevada says it is bursting at the seams. Right now there's a three month wait for an appointment, but patients say they are just thankful for the free care and medicine.
