Heidi Allen
@Prof_HeidiAllen
Followers
3,873
Following
1,966
Media
122
Statuses
8,501
Associate Professor at Columbia U., health policy wonk, former ER social worker, mom, adventurer. Opinions are mine. 🏳️🌈
Manhattan, NY
Joined July 2016
Don't wanna be here?
Send us removal request.
Explore trending content on Musk Viewer
الهلال
• 520052 Tweets
Diddy
• 508565 Tweets
Alito
• 381551 Tweets
Cassie
• 299762 Tweets
Thomas
• 232385 Tweets
Gabigol
• 196152 Tweets
Flamengo
• 179741 Tweets
Peter
• 163074 Tweets
Corinthians
• 155353 Tweets
Gabriel
• 115775 Tweets
Uribe
• 114582 Tweets
Barron
• 87039 Tweets
رونالدو
• 57359 Tweets
デザフェス
• 46937 Tweets
#Kyrgyzstan
• 29880 Tweets
Paul Skenes
• 21116 Tweets
جيسوس
• 18646 Tweets
كريستيانو
• 18161 Tweets
كاس الملك
• 17303 Tweets
Afganistán
• 16376 Tweets
البليهي
• 14769 Tweets
سافيتش
• 14633 Tweets
الشوط الاول
• 13304 Tweets
Southampton
• 13170 Tweets
ムビナナ
• 11639 Tweets
the boy is mine
• 10755 Tweets
Dabney Coleman
• 10341 Tweets
الشوط الثاني
• 10311 Tweets
Pinned Tweet
“It is time to set aside our myths and have a thoughtful national dialogue about the Medicaid program.” - Heidi Allen (
@Prof_HeidiAllen
) |
#TEDMED
2017
1
14
35
0
20
104
I'm just heard my 11 year-old tell his math teacher "I'm having a day when I just can't seem to do math."
Her response: "Then put your math book away and go outside and play."
A lesson for us all.
🥰🥰🥰
194
3K
47K
When we ask Black junior faculty to take on big projects to address racism in our universities, how are we going to honor that? Does this work count as first-author peer-reviewed publications when it is time to go up for tenure? This is a serious question.
29
338
2K
Coming out caused me massive heartache, so I don’t take
#NationalComingOut
day lightly. But I have zero regrets (except for that year we took engagement photos in March).
13
6
902
My dad got vaccinating today! One and done with J&J. I’m so relieved! I guess Fox News changing their tune is having some impact!
14
14
495
I’m issuing an Executive Order that all of my manuscripts are to be accepted with minor revisions. It’s my policy.
7
36
492
They put my suicidal 13 y.o. in 6 days of isolation (of a total 9 day hospital stay) as a covid "precaution" in late 2022. When I said I wanted to bring him home because this was cruel and causing harm, they implied "leaving AMA" could trigger a call to CPS.
41
83
452
Hey
@healthpolicytwitter
! I have been appointed to serve a 3 year term on the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC)!
I AM SO EXCITED!!! 🤗🤗🤗
@nasw
@CSocialWorkEd
@ColumbiaSSW
@Columbia
#Medicaid
#macrosocialwork
#macrosw
35
11
312
Health policy is housing policy. Health policy is anti-poverty policy. Housing policy is health policy. Anti-poverty policy is health policy. And so it goes for education, criminal justice, food, climate, transportation, etc.
Research: A Healthy House from Medicaid? Link between
#housing
stability +
#Medicaid
suggests that costs for
#health
+ housing may be in direct competition for families already on the brink via
@Prof_HeidiAllen
+
@eleliason
of
@ColumbiaMSPH
CC:
@HUDgov
0
5
7
1
80
211
I have lately had the unfortunately opportunity to deeply interact with the health care system. The difficulty folks have with understanding that a child could have four moms (when a lesbian couple has a kid, they divorce, and both remarry) is causing my family real distress. 1/6
10
12
190
To: Medicaid non-expansion states
You’ve been playing hard to get so I will sweeten the deal. A 5% increase in FMAP might change how you feel. This offering of love is in lieu of a shove, so come now, let’s make it real.
#HealthPolicyValentines
4
29
184
I planned to work on an abstract today, but got distracted being fabulously gay.
#dressforsuccess
13
0
176
One of the things my dad said to me when I came out was “I just don’t want your life to be harder.” I responded, “Then don’t make my life harder.”
He hasn’t, which I’m telling you, *makes all the difference in the world.*
If you can't accept your child for who they're telling you they are, then you have no business being a parent.
6K
8K
76K
1
4
168
I like to tell my PhD students that you will never be as smart, or as stupid, as people will think you are.
Science is built on failure as is the career of any successful scientist.
Becoming a scientists is learning to deal with setbacks, rejections, criticism and failed experiments. Thick skin is what lies under those shiny CVs.
@DrHowardLiu
10
95
240
5
23
152
I’m so happy for one of my all-time fav collaborators, Ben Sommers, the new Deputy ASPE. He is truly perfect for this role and the country’s health policy is in good hands! 🤗🤗🤗
2
9
172
I’ll know we have achieved gender equality in the workplace when they raise the office temperature 10 degrees.
4
9
161
We are hiring junior faculty focused on race and racism, specifically Black and Latinx/a/o well-being! We are a vibrant (and dare I say, fun!) faculty, including
@CourtneyCogburn
@DrDesmondPatton
@AlcantaraPhD
@ProfBrookeSWest
! Apply at:
4
85
157
I’m a PROFESSOR. I love HEALTH POLICY. I drink
@lacroixwater
. I like STUDENTS who read the syllabus. I OWN my white privilege. I love my GAY family. If you don’t like it, MOVE.
I’m an EMERGENCY DOC. I love EVERYTHING. I have NO ATTENTION SPAN and my bladder holds 500 mL MORE THAN YOURS. If you don’t like it, MOVE.
147
211
3K
1
4
134
This was my experience
@JFKairport
last night, coming in from Amsterdam. We had a sick passenger sitting directly behind us on the airplane. NO screening done whatsoever as we came into the U.S.
Arrived at O’Hare, the worlds busiest airport today from Madrid, a hot bed of
#CoronavirusPandemic
and sailed right thru passport and customs. There is NO protocol. Not one question asked, no temperatures being taken. Pandemic? What pandemic?
356
5K
11K
7
84
130
🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗
MACPAC welcomes our newest commissioners Heidi L. Allen, Robert Duncan, Dennis Heaphy, Laura Herrera Scott, and Verlon Johnson! And congrats to Kisha Davis for her new appointment to vice chair, and Melanie Bella for her reappointment as chair.
1
8
48
30
2
138
Hi, I’m a social worker turned health policy researcher. You may know me from my hits “The medical model is failing patients”, “Medicaid and Medicare are not the same program” and the chart-topping “The answer is Systemic Racism”.
Hi, I'm a trauma surgeon.
You may know me from my hits “Yes, I am a Surgeon” “No, really, I am a Surgeon,” and the chart-topping “Let me introduce myself Again (I am not your nurse, although yes your nurse is fabulous).”
45
198
2K
0
10
121
Many people think they have really good private health insurance until they get sick. The limits of their coverage are revealed at a time when they are most in need.
3
38
118
Now would be a good time for all states that haven’t expanded Medicaid to do so. This will increase access to health care, make sure providers get paid, and protect low-income families from medical debt. Trust me, I’ve studied this.
#medicaidmatters
3
35
128
I think this has been called social work and I, for one, was doing it in EDs a decade ago. But invent away!
#edsocialwork
#socialwork
#medicalsw
Inventing Social Emergency Medicine: New report examines social issues impacting America’s emergency departments, establishes framework for new field
#SocialEM
@Emergencydocs
@SocialEmergMed
@RWJF
@TheEMFoundation
4
11
20
10
15
126
Preach Don Berwick, preach!
The Existential Threat of Greed in US Health Care via
@JAMA_current
part of
@JAMANetwork
2
41
134
I volunteer for a suicide hotline that serves trans youth. I wish that everybody who supports this ban could spend just one shift with me. Here is what I know to be true: gender affirming health care, especially during puberty, saves kids’ lives. This is just cruel.
BREAKING: Arkansas has become the first state to ban health care for trans youth.
11K
24K
66K
1
31
116
Would love to see mobile vaccination clinics driving into these communities. So much more efficient and so much more equitable. We just finished a census. We can do this! We can go door to door!
4
20
117
To my badass female colleagues trying to run the tenure track (at home) while parenting full-time, I see you. ❤️❤️❤️
3
7
109
Just finished teaching a class where we covered tips for evaluating credible research when writing to inform policy. I had a slide on impact factors, h-index, citation metrics, etc. 1/5
4
6
109
I just walked by the coffee maker and patted it on the head like it’s my favorite child.
4
3
109
Next level pandemic: After a tiring day of work I went to change into something more comfortable, only to realize I was already wearing sweats. I don’t know where to go from here.
#COVID19
3
1
111
@choo_ek
As a point of comparison, I have an h-index of 14 and I was just tenured at Columbia.
2
1
104
Oh my heart. Oldest son (15) was giving me a hug and youngest son (13) joined in. Then our little dog demanded to be in the middle. We stood there in the kitchen, the four of us, hugging. These moments are what it’s all about. 🥰
2
1
110
I grew up in Idaho. My sister Rachel died uninsured in Idaho. This year, I’m giving thanks for Idaho’s Medicaid expansion.
This Thanksgiving, Idahoans are Extremely Thankful for Medicaid Expansion via
@GeorgetownCCF
1
17
34
1
10
96
My 14 y.o. son just joined Twitter and so this is my chance to say to the world how much I love his anti-racist, social-justice-loving, make-the-world-better heart.
@Magicaxolotl7
11
1
88
Today at lunchtime I wandered into the kitchen singing “I’m a hungry hungry hippo!”, not aware my wife was in there on a zoom call.
I’ve been told this behavior is quite mortifying when someone is trying to be a lawyer.
5
1
92
Somebody had the nerve to clone my Twitter account without offering to do any of my work. We have an overdue peer review they could be working on! Listen
@profheidiallen
, you can’t be me unless you are willing to carry some weight.
#dishesneeddoing
#papersneedwriting
5
3
90
@KatecBowler
When my oldest was little we were talking about his grandma who had died recently of cancer. Son: I think it’s okay really. She is in heaven with Jesus and Martin Luther King Jr. (pauses and then with a dramatic whisper) did you know they did NOT die of natural causes??
1
6
84
As a freshman I sold plasma twice a week. Bought groceries on a gas station credit card until they cut it up. Dropped out mid-semester when I was a junior because I needed to work full time to eat. Drove cab for a year until I could afford to go back. Honestly? It was tough.
1
4
87
After being fired at Hamburger Connection on my second day for “not being a fast enough learner”, I worked at
@McDonalds
for the next two years while finishing high school. Now a tenured professor
@Columbia
.
PA school funding lawsuit really illuminating what policy makers think of poor kids’ career potential: “What use would someone on the McDonald’s career track have for Algebra 1?”
122
992
2K
3
6
87
We have amazing data.
We have close collaborations with 6 states and NYC.
We care about postpartum health and eliminating disparities.
Our goal is to influence state and federal policies.
We are fun!
Come be our postdoc!
@jamie_daw
4
19
86
Also, for any
@ColumbiaSSW
students who are wondering about LGBTQ+ faculty. Here I am! 🏳️🌈
#NationalComingOutDay
Coming out caused me massive heartache, so I don’t take
#NationalComingOut
day lightly. But I have zero regrets (except for that year we took engagement photos in March).
13
6
902
5
0
80
I'm reading a student paper about her internship where a patient is being held in the hospital until her Medicaid can be activated, because hospitals get retroactive payment, but rehab facilities don't. I wonder how often this happens and at what expense to the Medicaid program?
10
20
76
It is utterly exhausting and demoralizing. And we are already exhausted and demoralized. This kind of repeated astonishment isn't helping us or our kid. (Hospitals: train your staff, ALL of your staff). 6/6
10
2
80
My favorite part of being a professor is happening right now: my former student has the podium and I'm in the learning seat. Proud of you and glad to be here.
@builtfoesuccess
#antiracistSW
1
3
85
Two years ago I found a blurry picture online of a small dog in the Bronx who was being re-homed. I caught my first break in a year of conniving and my wife agreed to “just take a look”. Before she could blink, the dog was in the car heading home with us. My best scam ever.
6
2
82
I live in faculty housing and it took me awhile to figure out why students were breaking out in cheers outside - Monday and Tuesday midterms were just cancelled.
Seemed inevitable but it is still surreal that Columbia is canceling in-person classes. Gunna have to pick up this remote teaching thing pretty darn fast
#onetwothreezoom
1
2
29
1
17
76
I reminded my mom to vote for Medicaid expansion in Idaho and she told me “I would prefer to do my own research on the issue.” 😐
4
0
85
I have such a tenuous hold on my domestic life. We are always on the brink of running out of milk or clean clothes. The kids homework gets lost and the dog is a clandestine pee-er on rugs. But it’s cool. It’s the best we can do and it’s enough.
#academicmamamantras
5
1
83
Today I was scheduled to be "professor" until about 9 pm. Instead, I was "mom" - making tea, wielding thermometer and ibuprofen, rubbing a bony back and tucking in over and over again. It isn't lost on me how lucky I am to be able to take off one hat and firmly put on the other.
2
2
76
Happy Pride! From my family to yours. ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜
p.s. I made my wife wear these shirts.
#trooper
4
0
79
Working from home in 2021, three weeks into the semester:
My wife just read an email over my shoulder and said "You need to say no to that. You don't have time."
Bet she asks me to unload the dishwasher though.
😐
1
1
77
Last night I dreamed I was being vetted as a health policy advisor to President
@JoeBiden
. I was asked to speak on broad Medicaid reforms.
Sherry Glied was there and when I finished she said “Wow! I learned so much!”
And that, my friends, was when I realized I was asleep. 😂
1
0
79
Measuring the impact of health insurance on actual health is tricky. In this JAMA Viewpoint, we attempt to summarize what is known (in 1500 words!) and what it means for Medicaid.
Assessing Health Outcomes Attributable to Medicaid Expansion At 5 Years
1
33
78
I’m sick from Halloween candy and anticipatory dread. The two are highly correlated, but the causal relationship is confounded by an omitted variable.
1
7
77
We are hiring! Come be my colleague. You don’t have to identify as a social worker, just willing to embrace our values! Also, we offer a degree in policy. Also, also, HARD FUNDING.
#healthpolicytwitter
Faculty search
@ColumbiaSSW
: scholars of race and racism, particularly anti-Black racism. We are adopting a “systems thinking” approach to analyzing the complex, interrelated forces that drive disparities (e.g., economic, education, criminal justice, technology, & health systems)
1
37
60
3
27
74
This is a song I will be singing for awhile - traditional Medicaid is going to need more support from the feds but Medicaid expansion is still a great deal for states. Ben Sommers and I discuss the future of Medicaid financing here:
The next 12 months will be a time of reckoning for
#Medicaid
. The program is a critical tool in the economic and public health response to
#COVID19
#Coronavirus
0
12
12
0
19
76
Anyway, I’m thankful for the first year MSW curriculum that taught our students to ask the right/tough questions, the courage of the student to challenge me, and the opportunity to do better. 5/5
3
1
75
I came of age in Idaho in the 80-90’s. Never met an out gay person. Never heard a positive word about the LGBTQ+ community. I’m the GAYEST. Good luck with this stupidity, Florida. 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
4
0
69
Why do people who are being paid for their work (consulting firms) keep asking me to give them my time and expertise for free? What's that about?
4
2
75
Even though we live in NYC, it is literally blowing people's minds that gay people exist and that we have kids. One provider explained "your son has an unusually complex family situation". Oh? Does he? I didn't realize that divorce and remarriage were that uncommon. 4/6
2
0
68
What I should have said is YOU ARE RIGHT. We need new approaches to assessing the credibility and contribution of research. If we are studying Black maternal mortality, let’s turn our attention to the literature by Black scholars in this area. 3/5
1
0
68
After I left my job as a social worker
@OHSUEmergency
, it took several years to process all of the deaths, the families I supported in the worst moments of their lives. Hospital SWs are going to need trauma counseling when this is over.
#coronavirus
#medicalSW
1
10
61
👇👇👇 THE "SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH" ARE NOT NEUTRAL. Structural racism and individual discrimination are the risk-factors, not race or ethnicity.
0
22
60
Q: Does hugging my dog every fifteen minutes while working from home increase or decrease my overall productivity?
A: Who cares. I'm doing it.
@KffDogs
6
3
62
@RWJF
just waived narrative reporting for their grants until the end of 2021. I could not love them more for recognizing the toll of this pandemic and actually doing something constructive to make life easier. Thank you RWJF!
1
1
61
I'm quite proud to be a member of the new
@MilbankFund
Editorial Advisory Board! What an honor!
#healthpolicytwitter
#socialwork
@ColumbiaSSW
The Milbank Quarterly is pleased to announce its new Editorial Advisory Board. Thank you to all of the distinguished scholars and thought leaders who have joined us.
0
1
11
7
1
63
#healthpolicy
by morning, reviewing NIH apps by afternoon, making family favorite cookies for
@ColumbiaSSW
baking competition by evening!
#allthethings
#thisistenure
4
0
56
For the first time in my life, I journaled every day for a year. I never could have guessed how much, and how little, I would have to say.
#2020
3
1
57
Happy Pride!! 🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈SCOTUS will be ruling this month on if it's okay to discriminate against same-sex adoptive parents. My kids are wonderful young people. They are openhearted, responsible, kind, funny, and a joy to be around. I'm proud of them and of our family.
@Magicaxolotl7
0
5
57
I’m wildly in favor of tuition-free schools of social work.
6
7
54
I'm teaching a dissertation seminar for the first time and would love to hear your best "developing a research question" advice and resources. Let's help these awesome PhD candidates launch!
#AcademicTwitter
20
8
57
Vacations are so good for the soul. I just spent five minutes wondering if there’s anything I can do to make my dog happier. As a wife, mother, professor, sister, and friend, that’s the kind of bandwidth I need. After I attend to the dog, of course.
3
0
55
I’m very excited that this paper is out! Can Medicaid Expansion Prevent Housing Evictions? | Health Affairs
0
12
58
We co-parent really well and we all show up for our kid; that seems more unusual to me. Listen, I get needing to know who should sign the forms but it doesn't need to be a circus. What message is this sending our son? 5/6
1
0
55
In the midst of so many intersecting crises, let’s make Medicaid better and more accessible to those who need it.
.
@Prof_HeidiAllen
calls for states to act now to maximize
#Medicaid
’s impact and meet economic and health needs stemming from
#COVID19
#MilbankQuarterly
0
5
8
1
19
55
Explaining to 12 y.o. how snow days were announced when I was a child:
“School closures would scroll underneath whatever was on TV ...it would be dark early morning and kids would huddle there, watching and waiting with anxiety and hope...”
12 y.o.: “What? I don’t get it.”
3
0
55
I was in an Uber this morning on my way to the airport in Porto, Portugal. The driver asked me where I was headed and I told him NYC. He looked at me in the rearview mirror, sighed, and said “America is so scary.”
Ain’t that the truth.
2
3
54
I have a lot of opinions about the Medicaid program. Thanks to
@MilbankFund
for giving me a forum.
Medicaid's Heavy Lift
1
14
53
I want to live in an America where justice for Black people isn't such a surprise or relief.
0
3
52
One of the first things we need to do to prepare for this likely pandemic is to remove cost barriers to health care. This isn’t the time for people to have to choose between getting tested or paying rent.
3
12
53
14 y.o. and 12 y.o. have vaccine appointments in the morning. There were plenty of slots available but I had to lie about their ages to get past the screening questions (which haven’t been updated). Fingers crossed!!
2
0
52
I love it when Twitter asks me if I want to read an article I wrote before I retweet it.
No ma’am, I don’t. Not ever again.
#AcademicTwitter
2
1
54
Losing Medicaid really really sucks.
What's the five word version of your PhD thesis title (past or forseen)?
Me would be:
Is this squiggly line real?
😂
@AcademicChatter
#phdchat
1K
97
2K
2
8
49
Anti-racist work in SW doctoral education requires a financial investment, not volunteerism.
#antiracistSW
1
2
49
Microsoft Word is killing me with the constant accusations that I'm using "passive voice" in my writing. Is there an academic version I can download?
What do you think Academic Word would flag?
21
3
53