Published 6 October 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b3938
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b3938

Feature

Profile

Margaret Allen: A force in humanising the American healthcare system

Zosia Kmietowicz, freelance journalist

1 London

zkmietowicz@bmj.com

Margaret Allen’s experience of the NHS and working with vulnerable people in California has made her determined to promote a more thoughtful dialogue on healthcare reform in the US. Zosia Kmietowicz catches up with her on a trip to the UK

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Certain images spring to mind at the mention of California—Hollywood, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Oscars, Clint Eastwood, and Big Sur are just some of them. But glancing through the career history of Margaret Allen, a family practice physician assistant at Ravenswood Family Health Center in East Palo Alto, gives a very different impression of the US’s most populous state. Here the words uninsured, working poor, immigrants, and homeless predominate. They are the people Ms Allen has worked with for the past 17 years and part of the population at the centre of a storm on Capitol Hill as President Obama tries to pass legislation that will guarantee health care for all US citizens.

Ms Allen is in an unusual position. Born and raised in the UK she has nevertheless spent most of her professional life in the US, except for one stint working in the NHS. Her father was a general . . . [Full text of this article]


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