{"id":6968,"date":"2025-05-03T07:27:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-03T07:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=6968"},"modified":"2025-05-27T23:39:44","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T23:39:44","slug":"black-physicians-ponder-trump-administrations-policies-at-national-medical-association-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=6968","title":{"rendered":"Black Physicians Ponder Trump Administration\u2019s Policies at National Medical Association Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>by\u00a0<span class=\"author vcard\"><a class=\"url fn n\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtoninformer.com\/author\/jameswright\/\">James Wright Jr.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cfmedicine.nlm.nih.gov\/physicians\/biography_62.html\">Dr. Donna Christensen<\/a>\u00a0loves attending meetings of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nmanet.org\/\">National Medical Association<\/a>\u2014the trade organization for Black physicians\u2014 in the District, especially the events where she visits her old haunt: Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n<p>Christensen represented the Virgin Islands as a Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives as a delegate from 1997-2015 and served as the chair of the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/robinkelly.house.gov\/issues\/congressional-black-caucus-health-braintrust\">Congressional Black Caucus Health Braintrust<\/a>. Planning ahead, Christensen made plans last year to attend the 2025\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/colloquium.nmanet.org\/\">National Medical Association (NMA) Colloquium on African American Health<\/a>\u00a0set for the Hilton Capitol Hill Hotel in Northwest from March 27-29.<\/p>\n<p>The former congresswoman was hoping the meeting would coincide with a Harris-Walz administration, but came to the District anyway for the convening, despite President Donald Trump assuming power in January.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n<div class=\"newspack_global_ad scaip-1 fixed-height\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-caf9af3267-0\">During the conference, when participants visited the offices of U.S. senators and congressional representatives, Christensen made the rounds on her own on The Hill.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cBecause I am a former member of Congress, I have a pass to get on the House floor,\u201d Christensen, 79, told The Informer. \u201cI had the chance to mix with former colleagues. I spoke with Maxine Waters, and she is really concerned about the Trump administration\u2019s policy on AIDS and whether they will continue to fund it at appropriate levels. I also ran into Yvette Clarke, the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, and she said they have plans to oppose any cuts to health care services.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Christensen was joined by scores of her NMA colleagues as they pondered the response to Trump administration policies that call for the cutting of such programs as Medicaid and Medicare. Additionally, the organization is considering how it reacts to the firing of federal health care agency employees that play a key role in the fight against diseases that plague Americans.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are very concerned about the budget cuts across the federal agencies,\u201d said\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/pds.nmanet.org\/bios\/virginia-caine-m-d-2\/\">Dr. Virginia Caine, the president of the NMA<\/a>. \u201cThe colloquium is so important because we are allowing policymakers, physicians in federal agencies, and physicians in private practices to come together \u2013 all of whom are directly impacted by the recent public health policy changes under the federal administration.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-black-physicians-speak-about-trump-policies\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Black Physicians Speak About Trump Policies<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Caine, who practices medicine in Indianapolis, Indiana, said Black doctors cannot afford to be silent during this time.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n<div class=\"newspack_global_ad scaip-2 fixed-height\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-2bd992b9b0-0\">\u201cWe must have the strategy, expertise and knowledge to provide solutions related to the impact on vulnerable and disadvantaged populations,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are the ambassadors, we are the gladiators, and we may be the only ones who are standing in place trying to protect and serve our communities.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>While she would not comment specifically about the policies and performance of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hhs.gov\/about\/leadership\/robert-kennedy.html\">U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,\u00a0<\/a>Caine did note his impact.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA leading expert and a well-respected member of the scientific community is no longer employed at FDA,\u201d Caine, 53, said bluntly. \u201cThat is a huge loss for the nation related to the level of expertise, research, regulation and safety. There is a concern about the lack of knowledge at the agency level needed to make important critical decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The NMA president said the cuts proposed by the Trump administration in health care programs will have an adverse effect on patients.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI hope that people who have not sought out health care do so quickly,\u201d she said. \u201cThey need to hurry up and get their medical exams done. Surgeries that have been planned need to take place because Medicaid may not be available soon.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-3    \">\n<div class=\"newspack_global_ad scaip-3 fixed-height\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-dc2e0e383b-0\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>During the convening, the association held a series of discussion panels and speaker sessions on such topics ranging from diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) to climate and environmental effects on underserved neighborhoods.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/profiles.howard.edu\/roger-mitchell\">Dr. Roger Mitchell<\/a>, president of Howard University Hospital in Northwest, D.C. and president-elect of the NMA, said the organization will be at the forefront of issues related to Black health care outcomes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe NMA\u2019s colloquium educates physicians about the importance of policy and health care delivery in the country, and informs policymakers what is important to the NMA, Black and brown physicians, and patients,\u201d said Mitchell, 50. \u201cWe were able to get together with several policymakers and legislators to highlight three areas that we find important to our organization, which are the physician workforce, physician compensation and federal cuts against Medicaid.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Source: Published without changes from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtoninformer.com\/black-physicians-react-to-trump-policies\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Washington Informer Newspaper<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by\u00a0James Wright Jr. Dr. Donna Christensen\u00a0loves attending meetings of the\u00a0National Medical Association\u2014the trade organization for Black physicians\u2014 in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6969,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[255,33,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-america-under-attack","category-health","category-regular-column"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6968"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6970,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6968\/revisions\/6970"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}