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The largest community health center in South Carolina celebrated its continued mission to enhance and expand quality, community-responsive health care for the medically underserved and uninsured on Monday.

Orangeburg-based Family Health Centers Inc. is a part of the National Association of Community Health Centers Inc., which represents the nation’s network of more than 1,000 federally qualified health centers serving 15 million people through 5,000 sites.

Community health centers, also known as federally qualified health centers, are local, nonprofit, community-owned and federally funded. This year marks the 41st anniversary of the community center movement, which began with the development of the first tiny, rural site in the Mississippi Delta region.

FHC is celebrating National Community Health Centers Week under the national theme of “Celebrating Patient Voice and Community Choice.”

Sixth District Congressman Jim Clyburn served as keynote speaker during a ceremony at FHC’s main Orangeburg site on Monday. A reception and tour followed.

FHC works to promote the health of its community, which includes residents of Orangeburg, Bamberg, Calhoun and upper Dorchester counties, through its seven comprehensive primary care sites. Improving access and eliminating health disparities are among its goals as it provides everything from dental, pediatric and pharmaceutical care to OB/GYN, podiatry and behavioral health services.

FHC CEO Dr. Arthur Kennedy said there are still too many people who are uninsured or underserved. The system needs to be revamped to ensure everyone is served, he said.

“We need vision and we need to unite our vision because, in the end, diseases are neither Republican or Democratic. They affect everyone,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy touted FHC’s partnership with Pfizer’s “Sharing the Care” program, a prescription assistance program that enables uninsured patients to receive Pfizer medications at little or no cost.

FHC serves more than 38,000 patients annually. It provided more than $447,000 in free Pfizer prescription medications to eligible patients last year.

Describing Clyburn as an “eloquent voice for the voiceless,” Kennedy said the congressman helped pump federal dollars into community health center coffers and praised his commitment to improving health care access.

“I do believe health care is a responsibility of those who are in charge of our nation’s growth. Over 46 million Americans are without health care, and there is something absolutely wrong with that,” Clyburn said.

The Democratic congressman said community health centers should have a mission to provide preventative, comprehensive care with competency and professionalism, especially for those patients who may not have the ability to pay for their health care.

He said today’s “deficit society” is characterized by deficiencies in wages, jobs and education, along with health care.

“We have a deficit society because there is a deficit in leadership. Where there is no vision, the people perish. People are perishing in our state because the kind of vision that was seen 41 years ago ... seems to have fallen off from the agenda,” he said.

Sen. John Matthews, D-Bowman, who was praised for working to pump $1 million in state funds into South Carolina’s community health center coffers, was one of many legislative, government and community officials present at the ceremony.

Orangeburg County Councilman Johnny Ravenell and Orangeburg Mayor Paul Miller, who presented Kennedy with a proclamation declaring the week of Aug. 6-12 as FHC Week in the city of Orangeburg, were among the others in attendance.

Organized by the Orangeburg County Consumer Health Council in 1972 in Orangeburg, FHC is run by a 15-member board of directors and was accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations through 2005.

Barbara Gelberg of Pfizer Health Solutions and Malvise Scott, NACHC vice president of programs and planning, were among the speakers at the ceremony.

FHC is one of more than 134 community health center sites under the umbrella of the state Primary Health Care Association. Lathran Woodard, the association’s executive director, said more federal funds will hopefully be given to the state’s community health centers as they continue to battle diabetes and other diseases among a largely uninsured population.

“We have the issues here. We need to address them, but we can’t deal with this by ourselves,” Woodard said.

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