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Mandi Spishak-Thomas

@aspishakthomas.com
1.2K followers 1.4K following 281 posts

Research professor @ Rutgers studying Medicaid. Social worker and health policy wonk. Union organizer (AAUP-AFT) and member of Brooklyn CB6. Baseball #LFGM and WNBA🗽enthusiast. Free 🇵🇸. ACAB. Still 😷. she/her. aspishakthomas.com

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Reposted by Mandi Spishak-Thomas
Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 14h
abolish the death penalty
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The New Arab @thenewarab.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Over 900 wheelchairs, intended for wounded children in Gaza, have been held in Jordan since 2025 due to Israel blocking the shipment:
newarab.com
Israel blocks 900 wheelchairs for Gaza’s child amputees
Over 900 wheelchairs, intended for wounded children in Gaza, have been held in Jordan since 2025 due to Israel blocking the shipment.
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Alex S. Vitale @alexvitale.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
NYC DSA folks: Please co-sponsor our proposal to "Build Community Safety through Prevention, Not Policing" on the convention web page: convention.socialists.nyc/proposals
convention.socialists.nyc
Member Login | 2026 NYC-DSA Convention
Convention 2026 planning tools.
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UM Population Studies Center @um-psc.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
@pamherd.bsky.social on @npr.org this weekend on how new Medicaid work requirements will affect people with disabilities ⬇️
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Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
The first time I was pulled out of line at the airport for "special screening" was 1 month after 9.11 when I was flying from Chicago to NY. That experience would become a regular occurrence for the next 15 years.
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Mandi Spishak-Thomas @aspishakthomas.com · 26/08/2026
Presenting my work on Medicaid estate recovery at the @advancingstates.bsky.social #HCBSconference this morning alongside colleagues at the Aging & Disability Health Policy Lab and @justiceinaging.org, come see us to learn more!
Picture of a metallic placard outside a hotel ballroom displaying a conference session that reads “Medicaid Estate Recovery”
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Mandi Spishak-Thomas @aspishakthomas.com · 22/08/2026
Everyone needs to watch this before negotiations start so we can be on these streets fighting the salary cap #LGM
m.youtube.com
Could There Be No Baseball Games Next Year? These Owners Are Betting On It.
YouTube video by More Perfect Union
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Mandi Spishak-Thomas @aspishakthomas.com · 14/08/2026
As chair of the @bkcb6.bsky.social Business Affairs and Licenses committee, we have been pushing for year-round outdoor dining for years. When it went away, so did mass support for our favorite bars and restaurants. I’m thrilled and cannot wait to be having a cozy dinner outside in December!
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Lex McMenamin (they/them) @lexmcmenamin.com · 13/08/2026
from the brilliant @derecka.bsky.social "The very movements producing [radical] rhetoric, from abolition to Free Palestine, also produced the possibilities of [DSA's] election [win]s. Downplaying those movements puts organizers who continue this work at risk, especially right now."
theguardian.com
AOC and Mamdani wanted to defund the police. Their backtracking puts organizers at risk | Derecka Purnell
Progressive and democratic socialist politicians are recanting pandemic-era statements on police and prison abolition
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Lex McMenamin (they/them) @lexmcmenamin.com · 09/08/2026
I spoke to the mutual aid groups and mask blocs combatting the spread of COVID and viral illness by freely distributing masks and tests and lending out air purifiers — who nationally have now distributed thousands of masks for wildfire smoke, too, amid an anti-public health admin @us.theguardian.com
theguardian.com
How clean air clubs are protecting Americans from wildfire smoke
Mutual aid groups that started giving out PPEs during COVID are now loaning air purifiers and distributing masks to fume-addled communities
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Katelyn Burns @katelynburns.com · 06/08/2026
Every single Republican and gender critical person, including JK Rowling, supports this happening to you. They brag about building a future in which this type of humilating incident is common.
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Rutgers CSHP @rutgerscshp.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
This week's #WednesdayWisdom comes from CSHP & @rutgersifh.bsky.social Assistant Research Professor @aspishakthomas.com. She recently spoke with Realtor.com about her #research into the practice of #Medicaid estate recovery: go.rutgers.edu/ng9fo9re
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Andy Rowell @andy-rowell.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Back on here to thank @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social "It’s as if we launched a war against nature, and that has turned place after place into something that resembles a war zone. The climate movement is a peace movement, a movement to end this war and its casualties." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
We launched a war on nature. Now we are in a climate warzone | Rebecca Solnit
Summer is not what it once was. We have been robbed of one of life’s great joys
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Mandi Spishak-Thomas @aspishakthomas.com · 29/07/2026
Thrilled to see my work on Medicaid estate recovery highlighted so comprehensively in this excellent piece by Allaire Conte at Realtor [dot] com.
realtor.com
The Medicaid Rule That Can Put Your Family Home at Risk
A home can be exempt when you qualify for Medicaid yet face estate recovery later. Here’s what homeowners and heirs should know.
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Brian Goldstone @brian-goldstone.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Marvin's family has now created a GofundMe to help with funeral expenses and to support Natasha and the kids in the difficult days ahead. If you're able to contribute or share the fundraiser, I'd be deeply grateful.
gofundme.com
Donate to Support for Marvin Johnson Sr.'s Family and Honor his Legacy, organized by Erica Day Ruffin
It is with broken hearts that we share the unexpected passi… Erica Day Ruffin needs your support for Support for Marvin Johnson Sr.'s Family and Honor his Legacy
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Brian Goldstone @brian-goldstone.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
I'm heartbroken to share that Marvin (known to readers of There Is No Place for Us as Maurice) died earlier today in a workplace accident. He was 43. Natasha (Natalia in the book) asked me to share this news because she is too devastated to do so herself. We are all in shock.
Marvin, Natasha, and their newborn child
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Mandi Spishak-Thomas @aspishakthomas.com · 20/07/2026
Ah yes, the free market is going so well for our health "care" industry...patients just need to "discover more affordable care". Economists being economists again at the NYT 🙄
nytimes.com
Opinion | Capping the Price of Health Care Is a Mistake
A government bureaucrat doesn’t know how much your medicine or doctor’s visit should cost.
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Adrianna McIntyre @adrianna.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
People who do seasonal work — like farmworkers — are at elevated risk of coverage loss from Medicaid work requirements. It's much harder to automate compliance determinations for seasonal work. While there are policy accommodations, documentation burdens will be worse for seasonal workers.
kffhealthnews.org
They Harvest the Nation’s Food, but a New Rule May Strip Them of Health Insurance - KFF Health News
New Medicaid work requirements could make a complex system even harder for farmworkers to navigate.
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Jacobin @jacobinmag.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Bosses have desired ways to cut labor costs since time immemorial. Artificial-intelligence hype provides a powerful new excuse to replace stable employment with gig work.
jacobin.com
AI Is Contributing to the Gigification of Work
Bosses have desired ways to cut labor costs since time immemorial. Artificial-intelligence hype provides a powerful new excuse to replace stable employment with gig work.
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Rutgers CSHP @rutgerscshp.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Today we’re sharing an additional #FindingsFriday insight from a research study led by CSHP Assistant Research Professor @aspishakthomas.com. She examined the impact of Medicaid #estaterecovery on homeownership decisions, home equity, and #Medicaid enrollment: go.rutgers.edu/pzhz4f05
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Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
The Left(s) should get onboard with a massive expansion of public libraries across the country over the next 25 years. This is an affirmative project.
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Whitney Curry Wimbish @whitneycwimbish.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
The air conditioning at the Delaney Hall concentration camp failed today, so now people are roasting inside as temperatures rise above 100 degrees. It's so hot they can't breathe.
jerseyvindicator.org
Air conditioning fails at Delaney Hall as heat wave leaves detainees struggling to breathe • The Jersey Vindicator
Advocates say temperatures became unbearable inside one housing unit as the region's heat wave intensified.
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Mandi Spishak-Thomas @aspishakthomas.com · 03/07/2026
Call NJ reps and demand our neighbors be released. Sen Cory Booker: 202-224-3224 NJ office: 973-639-8700 Sen Andy Kim: 202-224-4744 NJ office: 609-259-2450 Rep McIver: 973-645-3213 Rep Menendez: 201-239-8892 Rep Mejia: 973-526-5668 Rep Pou: 973-523-5152 Rep Watson Coleman: 609-883-0026
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Mandi Spishak-Thomas @aspishakthomas.com · 01/07/2026
It's July 1st and at least 450,000 New Yorkers are estimated to lose their health care coverage. This is just the start of the mass uninsuring of low- and middle-income people in the U.S. due to federal cuts and exacerbated by states refusal to take action in tangible ways (e.g., tax the rich).
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Katelyn Burns @katelynburns.com · 30/06/2026
The trans sports ban are almost completely an invention of the media, conservative and mainstream. it has been years of lies, of shoddy fact checking on just completely false conservative claims, years of phony concern trolling.
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Bill McKay @mckay4senate.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
I hope you sick fucks are happy, because I just ran into soon-to-be former Congressman Dan Goldman and he is crying like a little girl.
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Chad Loder @chadloder.dev · 21/06/2026
The contamination and pollution from the fire in Boyle Heights is much, much worse than Los Angeles political leaders are admitting to. This is a huge scandal. So many people are getting genuinely sick.
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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 20/06/2026
“Nearly half of U.S. counties lack a practicing obstetrician or gynecologist. Rural hospitals have steadily closed labor and delivery units, citing financial losses, staffing shortages, and the high cost of malpractice insurance.”
statnews.com
Maternity deserts aren’t accidents. They’re the result of a design flaw
Shrinking fertility should mean less strain on doctors. But nearly half of U.S. counties lack a practicing obstetrician or gynecologist.
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Mandi Spishak-Thomas @aspishakthomas.com · 16/06/2026
Don't tell me you're tired of me talking about Medicaid estate recovery...New paper out about estate recovery in North Carolina using public records data alongside demographic characteristics in a first of its kind paper.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
<em>Health Services Research</em> | AcademyHealth & HRET Journal | Wiley Online Library
Objective To estimate the prevalence of Medicaid estate recovery in North Carolina. Study Setting and Design We descriptively analyzed the number of estates, amount recovered, and hardship waiver .....
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Arrianna Marie Planey, PhD MA @arrianna-planey.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
Nice to see more work on the Medicaid Estate Recovery Program from @aspishakthomas.com @heatherhhoward.bsky.social @emmasandoe.bsky.social - and in my home state, too onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
<em>Health Services Research</em> | AcademyHealth & HRET Journal | Wiley Online Library
Objective To estimate the prevalence of Medicaid estate recovery in North Carolina. Study Setting and Design We descriptively analyzed the number of estates, amount recovered, and hardship waiver ...
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The City Reporter @thecityreporter.nyc · 11/06/2026
From buses to cabs to street closures, here’s everything you need to know about making your way through Manhattan during the games.
buff.ly
How to Survive Your Commute as the World Cup Arrives in New York City
From buses to cabs to street closures, here’s everything you need to know about making your way through Manhattan during the games.
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Take for example, the claim that work requirements will reduce poverty. The HHS report ignores the facts that *up to 7 million people are expected to lose Medicaid over the next couple of years & *Medicaid is very effective at reducing poverty But somehow, magically, this will reduce poverty? C'mon
graph showing estimated medicaid loss as a result of work requirements
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
New at Can We Still Govern: The Trump admin released a report saying that Medicaid work requirements will increase work and reduce poverty. There is a technical term for this: malarkey. Actual experts @chloeneast.bsky.social & @adrianna.bsky.social break it down. open.substack.com/pub/donmoyni...
open.substack.com
The Trump Administration’s Dubious Case for Work Requirements
Cherry-picked studies and unrealistic assumptions define a new government report
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Bryce Covert @brycecovert.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
People who experience menopause at work often find out that there is no law guaranteeing their right to accommodations so they can keep working. Now that's starting to change. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
Working while menopausal
Employees in hormone flux want accommodations—and some states are granting them.
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Rutgers CSHP @rutgerscshp.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Today’s #FindingsFriday insight comes from a #NEW journal article authored by CSHP Assistant Research Professor @aspishakthomas.com. She explores the impacts of Medicaid #EstateRecovery on home ownership, home equity, and #Medicaid enrollment: go.rutgers.edu/pzhz4f05
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The City Reporter @thecityreporter.nyc · 03/06/2026
A state review found the Health Department launched new initiatives and improved data collection. But Black women still face disproportionately high pregnancy-related death rates. www.thecityreporter.nyc/2026/06/03/m...
thecityreporter.nyc
‘Not Doing Enough’: NY Maternal Mortality Reforms Haven’t Closed Racial Gap
A state review found the Health Department launched new initiatives and improved data collection. But Black women still face disproportionately high pregnancy-related death rates.
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Rutgers CSHP @rutgerscshp.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Today’s #FindingsFriday insight comes from a #NEW article co-authored by CSHP faculty @aspishakthomas.com and @ericaeliason.bsky.social. It explores utilization of postpartum #contraception and opportunities to remove barriers to accessing contraceptives after #childbirth: go.rutgers.edu/zwr9k0nt
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Anjali Dayal @anjalikdayal.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
"Kara Morillo, an organizer with the Eyes on ICE coalition, also told Gothamist she’d been told officers at Delaney Hall entered units containing men on an ongoing hunger strike, closed the vents, and began to assault and pepper spray detainees." gothamist.com/news/family-...
gothamist.com
Family, activists allege Newark immigration center guards beat and used gas on detainees
Gothamist saw multiple people taken out on stretchers and transported away in Ambulances.
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Ruth Delgado @heylookitsruth.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
URGENT CALL TO ACTION: ICE agents at Delaney Hall have escalated drastically. There are reports of them beating detainees inside the facility RIGHT NOW. If you can't physically be at Delaney Hall, you need to CALL GOV. SHERRILL AND YOUR REPS!!! Phone number and call script below ⬇️
URGENT CALL TO ACTION
ICE agents at Delaney Hall have escalated drastically. There are reports of them beating detainees inside the facility RIGHT NOW. There is video evidence that they have been beating protestors, pushing them into vehicles, and pepper spraying them.

WE NEED YOU! THE TIME IS NOW! If you can't physically be at Delaney Hall, you need to CALL GOV. SHERRILL AND YOUR REPS!!!

TELL THEM TO GET TO DELANEY HALL IMMEDIATELY-THEIR CONSTITUENTS ARE
BEING BRUTALIZED!
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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
NOW: I’m outside the Delaney Hall ICE prison in Newark, NJ where protesters are supporting detainees inside who are on a hunger and labor strike because of inhumane treatment. Follow this thread for updates.
press conference with activists and congressman jerry nadlercongressman dan goldman leaving delaney hall
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The City Reporter @thecityreporter.nyc · 27/05/2026
As a candidate, Zohran Mamdani promised to fund the city’s three library systems at 0.5% of the city’s budget. But as mayor, his executive budget proposal coughs up just 0.42% of the budget — less than his predecessor allocated.
thecity.nyc
Librarians, Kids Throw the Book at Mamdani Over Funding Promise
The mayor has allocated a smaller piece of the city budget to libraries than his predecessor, Eric Adams.
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Ro Z. Fell ❌️👑 😈😇 @rosie-e-posie.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
NJ: CALL ALL YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS and tell them it's time to SHUT DELANEY HALL DOWN! Free all detainees! #FuckICE 📲 202-224-3121
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Jeff VanderMeer @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
As tick season ramps up, keep in mind importance of preserving any tick that attaches. In theory, a tick not engorged cannot pass on disease, but there can still be infection and for peace of mind I always send them to the Tick Report. Testing is fast and not that expensive. 1/2 www.tickreport.com
tickreport.com
Tickreport.com: Cost Effective Tick Testing for Tick Borne Diseases in 2 to 3 Business Days
Identify tick specimens with science laboratory DNA and RNA based testing by mail for 25 different pathogens and diseases.
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(h)elle woods, j.d. @hellewoods.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
If you're mad at this (and you should be): Tomorrow at 1pm 120 Schermerhorn in BK Rally to demand accountability from the absolute ghouls in our courts.
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NYC for Abortion Rights @nycforabortion.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
On Fri night, Brooklyn court staff forced a woman to give birth inside the courtroom. Per public defenders, she gave birth in handcuffs, unable to reposition herself, unable to pick up her infant. The men who’d shackled her looked on. The judge lauded the birth of a ‘beautiful baby’ on the record.
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Katelyn Burns @katelynburns.com · 15/05/2026
For my newsletter, I wrote about the killing of Juniper Blessing and ruminated on who the media thinks deserves attention in death. Friday newsletters are usually paywalled, but I have made the mini-essay portion of this post free to all: www.burnsnotice.com/her-name-was...
burnsnotice.com
Her Name Was Juniper Blessing
Sick Burns 5/15/2026 - The slain 19 year old trans University of Washington student has been identified in the press It's never easy to write about a trans woman who dies by violence. It's just a fac...
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Emily St. James @emilystjams.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
What's gutting about this is that Juniper seems to have had a family who supported and loved her, she was in a community that has been explicitly welcoming to trans people, and a man still murdered her. She was living the life so many trans people can only dream of, and it simply didn't matter.
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mattie lubchansky @mattielubchansky.com · 14/05/2026
saw this on an ACT UP poster from 1988 at the Poster House museum today. the more things change :)
THE REPUBLICANS WANT IS DEAD
THE DEMOCRATS DONT CARE
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NYC Public Library Action Network @nycplan.org · 13/05/2026
Yesterday Mayor Mamdani released his executive budget for FY27, and NYC PLAN is disappointed to see that it falls $97million short of his promise to fund our libraries at 0.5% of the city expense budget. Our libraries deserve stable and increased funding, and we’re ready to continue this fight!
NYC PLAN statement on Mayor Mamdani’s City Budget : Mayor Mamdani released his Executive Budget for FY27. NYC PLAN is disappointed to see that it was $97 million short of his promise to fund libraries at 0.5% of the city expense budget. We will have a more detailed statement in the coming days. In the meantime, please follow NYC PLAN on social media to get plugged into our work.

The fight isn't over. No more broken promises!
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Mandi Spishak-Thomas @aspishakthomas.com · 13/05/2026
An excellent perspective from an NYC provider connecting the urgency of taxing the rich to health care where unsinsurance rates are only going to get worse as a result of HR1 and ICE.
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