Sept. 27, 2004 – Delegate Donna M, Christensen delivered the Congressional Black Caucus's Weekly "Message to America" last Saturday highlighting issues of health care disparities and their impact on communities of color. Distributed nationwide on the American Urban Radio Network, Christensen was chosen to deliver the message on health because of her chairmanship of the CBC Health Braintrust and her Congressional advocacy on the issues.
According to a press release from her office, Christensen took the opportunity to point to the current administration's record on health care. "African Americans and other people of color are more than half of the uninsured. Yet, in the past year, instead of bringing more people under coverage, five million more people have lost health insurance," she said.
Christensen also noted the loss of funding to put more doctors in communities that need them most. "On the great and critical need to have more health providers of color, the president completely wiped out funding for programs that support our children entering these important careers," she said. "Anti-affirmative action policies have further reduced our doctors from 4 percent to 2.9 percent of practicing physicians and healthcare providers today."
Christensen urged communities of color to become activists about their health care needs.
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