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Julie Poole

@juliepoole.bsky.social
309 followers 419 following 48 posts

I’m a writer and journalist. I write about health care, housing, mental health. I’m here to serve working class people and folks impacted by dysfunctional systems built to benefit the rich. juliepoolejp.com

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Reposted by Julie Poole
The New York Times @nytimes.com · 15/05/2026
Martin Short, who is the subject of a new documentary, has faced a series of unimaginable losses. Yet the comedy star says there are always laughs to remember. In an interview, he shared more about the documentary and reflected on his career, family and resiliency. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/15/m...
A black-and-white photo of Martin Short smiling while gesturing with his hands. A headline reads: "Martin Short and the Secret to Finding Joy While Surviving Tragedy." Photo by Thea Traff for The New York Times.
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Reposted by Julie Poole
Marianne Dhenin @mariannedhe.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
freelance journo friends, I'll be at this drop-in! Come hang out.
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Julie Poole @juliepoole.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
I savored every word of this article by @oliviamesser.bsky.social Every word. Just brilliant, hopeful, and fucking here.
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Reposted by Julie Poole
Olivia Messer @oliviamesser.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
I wrote the first version of this draft almost exactly a year ago, but I wasn’t ready. I am now. thebarbedwire.com/2025/10/27/t...
thebarbedwire.com
Texas Is a Lot More Queer Than You Think. I Am Too.
There are 1.8 million of us, and we’re not going anywhere.
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Julie Poole @juliepoole.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
I love this quote so much. The punishment for being poor is all too often further poverty, handed down from generation to generation.
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Julie Poole @juliepoole.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
This headlines did something to my brain. You can forget what's possible sometimes!!
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Julie Poole @juliepoole.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
Sometimes I'll read the Wall Street Journal because they publish way fewer pictures of RUMP and crew than WaPo and the New York Times. There's only so much butthole mouth I can take. Frankly, I'd prefer no butthole mouth ever again.
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Julie Poole @juliepoole.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
I left Instagram recently, am not on X, and haven't been on Facebook since 2013, when I deleted my account and never looked back. I no longer want to work for Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk--two morally bankrupt men who have been allowed to dictate how we live our lives.
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Julie Poole @juliepoole.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
Just had this thought: Call mom. Ask if her food stamps are still active.
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Julie Poole @juliepoole.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
Love!
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Julie Poole @juliepoole.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
Excited to do more long-form journalism about mental health—it’s been a long time coming & I had to work on my own mental health first before diving into the wreck. More soon.
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Reposted by Julie Poole
Witamy Paçzki @hmullphoto.bsky.social · 12/10/2025
This is terrific reporting on a cruel and exploitative state government scam designed to impoverish families after having a loved one dies, who required Medicaid coverage for the cost of their care. It should be illegal in all states.
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Reposted by Julie Poole
jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 14/10/2025
we’ll see how his mayoral tenure shakes out but i am convinced that Mamdani has the juice. not just the charisma to win an election but the temperament to govern and the measured pragmatism of someone who genuinely believes what they’re saying and wants to accomplish real things.
nytimes.com
Inside the Improbable, Audacious and (So Far) Unstoppable Rise of Zohran Mamdani
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Reposted by Julie Poole
The Nation Magazine @thenation.com · 14/10/2025
Bernie Sanders tells @nicholsuprising.bsky.social that the Democratic Party is made up of folks who have money. www.thenation.com/article/politics/…
thenation.com
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Texas Standard @texasstandard.bsky.social · 13/10/2025
For nearly two decades, the state’s Medicaid Estate Recovery Program has filed repayment claims against Medicaid recipients after they die, threatening the inheritances of vulnerable Texans. buff.ly/kH0rSNE
txst.us
This state program collects money from the deceased. Families pay the price.
For nearly two decades, the state’s Medicaid Estate Recovery Program has filed repayment claims against Medicaid recipients after they die, threatening the inheritances of vulnerable Texans.
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Julie Poole @juliepoole.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
100%!
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Julie Poole @juliepoole.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
Damn, try to follow this logic.
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Reposted by Julie Poole
Olivia Messer @oliviamesser.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
NEW: We sent @stevanzetti.bsky.social to a Turning Point USA event, where Attorney General Ken Paxton was the keynote speaker — just hours after he announced his “undercover operations to infiltrate and uproot leftist terror cells in Texas.” It went how you expect. thebarbedwire.com/2025/10/08/k...
thebarbedwire.com
Texas Republicans Are Using Charlie Kirk’s ‘Martyrdom’ to Crush Free Speech
Hours after announcing ‘undercover operations’ into leftist groups, Ken Paxton compared Charlie Kirk to Jesus at a Turning Point USA event.
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Julie Poole @juliepoole.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
@kitoconnell.com is doing such great work. This bill is disgraceful.
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Jessica Washington @jesswash.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
I wrote about the inherent contradiction between the Trump administration's MAHA agenda and its refusal to investigate or halt the dumping of toxic chemicals into our food, water and air. theintercept.com/2025/10/02/r...
theintercept.com
MAHA Slams “Corporate Capture” by Food and Pharma Giants — While Trump Strips Regulations
RFK Jr.’s rhetoric can appeal to desperate parents in a broken health system. But experts say his policies only hurt children.
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Reposted by Julie Poole
steven monacelli @stevanzetti.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
Public Citizen identified eight companies that received nearly $1B in non-competitive state contracts between 2014—2024. During those same years, these companies, their PACs, their officers, and their employees donated nearly $3M to Texans for Greg Abbott PAC. www.citizen.org/article/awar...
citizen.org
Awarding Influence - Public Citizen
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Mandi Spishak-Thomas @aspishakthomas.com · 09/10/2025
Thorough and important coverage on Medicaid estate recovery, a policy that continues to be understudied, misunderstood, and deeply harmful to families. Behind every bad policy is somehow always, disturbingly, private equity. Follow up this article with our recent MER paper in @jhppl.bsky.social
read.dukeupress.edu
Lots of Pain for Little Gain: Three Decades of Medicaid Estate Recovery | Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law | Duke University Press
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Reposted by Julie Poole
Josephine Lee @josephinelee.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
Trump hastens plan to deny domestic workers the minimum wage. www.texasobserver.org/texas-domest...
texasobserver.org
Texas Domestic Workers Face Trump Attack on Minimum Wage
Advocates warn a proposed rule by the Department of Labor will deepen the country’s “crisis of care.”
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Susan Hinton @susanhinton.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
Private Equity: The “Texas Health & Human Services Commission hired HMS to handle the MERP administration, paying the company a 12.5% commission on any recovered funds ... HMS is owned by Gainwell Technologies, which is owned in turn by a private equity firm, Veritas Capital, worth $50 billion.”
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estarianne @estarianne.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
You will be shocked to learn that the company the state sends to take people's houses is owned by private equity. Yes someone's making a profit from this ghoulish venture.
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Jeb Boyt @jeboyt.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
Troubling. If we were going to do this, we shouldn’t outsource it for someone to profit off of.
12.5 percent commission on recovered funds
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Reposted by Julie Poole
Patti Neff-Tiven @solestrella7.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
I had to get a lawyer to get POA on my dad who was already in a nursing home with Alzheimer's when my mom passed unexpectedly and then get a Lady Bird deed to avoid this very thing. We were privileged enough to go thru a year+ process. TX gonna TX
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Julie Poole @juliepoole.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
It’s the little things, like when a story I wrote shows up in my google alerts.
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Julie Poole @juliepoole.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
Important Medicaid programs are being cut right now. The Medicaid Estate Recovery Program is the sort of program the government SHOULD get rid of, instead it’s going after the health care benefits that people actually need. MERP is wasteful spending at its absolute worst.
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Julie Poole @juliepoole.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
A few years ago, I didn’t even know how to write a book review. Now I’m writing long form features. As a freelancer, I’ve had to hustle and grind. Most of the stories I do would not exist without grant funding. A handful of editors & organizations are the ONLY reason I get to do this work at all.
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Julie Poole @juliepoole.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
Brilliant piece by @josephinelee.bsky.social No need to repeat that Trump has never cared about the working poor. That’s pretty clear by now.
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Julie Poole @juliepoole.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
Tomorrow, I’m teaching a class on how to write an artist statement. I searched for the last artist statement that I wrote and what I found blew my hair back. My statement was so bold and vulnerable and true to who I am as a writer. After I reread it I thought, “Damn, that was brave.”
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Reposted by Julie Poole
Keri Blakinger @keribla.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
BREAKING: The Federal Bureau of Prisons just terminated its union's collective bargaining agreement this afternoon, according to this letter posted online by the national union president:
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Julie Poole @juliepoole.bsky.social · 20/09/2025
Hahahaha!!
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Julie Poole @juliepoole.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
As far as I remember from J-school, the media’s job is to hold power to account. And that’s what journalists are doing.
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Julie Poole @juliepoole.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
This is a “just keep going” type of moment. A refusal to get knocked off course by hopelessness and despair. I write a list of all the names I love.
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Julie Poole @juliepoole.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
What a lovely way to start the morning with such sweet words from a friend and fellow creative soul! Thanks @mistermysterio.bsky.social
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Julie Poole @juliepoole.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
Yep, this is pretty much the image I picture.
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Reposted by Julie Poole
ProPublica @propublica.org · 16/09/2025
There are 600,000 of you who now follow us on Bluesky 🦋 As journalists ourselves, we understand that regularly reading stories about broken systems can take a toll, and we never take the community here for granted. Thank you to all of you who care deeply about the work we do.
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Julie Poole @juliepoole.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
Now this is the club for me!
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Reposted by Julie Poole
Texas Observer @texasobserver.org · 16/09/2025
Our top story: Ostensibly, medical care in American prisons should look just like medical care offered outside prisons. But decades of litigation and scandals have shown that correctional healthcare occupies a space wholly its own.
texasobserver.org
The Health Penalty: How Texas Prisoners Are Denied Medications, Treatments, and Legal Redress
At a North Texas prison, one nurse practitioner racked up more than 20 federal lawsuits over alleged medical mistreatment. The patients’ stories illuminate a healthcare system that often seems like…
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Julie Poole @juliepoole.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
Blood, sweat, and tears in each issue.
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Julie Poole @juliepoole.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
So much love for this poem by KB Brookins. 💗
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Reposted by Julie Poole
So Sayeth Black Lord: @jmood88.bsky.social · 31/08/2025
I have a master of public health, but it wasn’t until my grandmother got sick and started researching what assistance was available that I found out exactly how states use Medicaid to essentially steal from families that can’t afford to pay for treatment. They’re almost state-run reverse mortgages.
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Julie Poole @juliepoole.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
This story took a very long time to report, but it was so worth it.
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Julie Poole @juliepoole.bsky.social · 01/06/2025
So much love for this memoir by Neko Case. If you grew up in the PNW in the 80s/90s, you'll experience massive waves of nostalgia and want to bust out those albums you used to listed to on cassette tape.
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Julie Poole @juliepoole.bsky.social · 01/06/2025
I'm a day late to #1000wordsofsummer! But I'm here now, streaming services canceled, snacks in the cupboard ready to ROCK. 🥁☠️🛹📓
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Julie Poole @juliepoole.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
I’m trying to come up with a mission statement for my role as a freelancer. Right now “it’s finish next assignment, then get a full time admin job.” In a beautiful handwritten script this could work on my company letterhead.
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Julie Poole @juliepoole.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
Gawd, I love a bingeable book. (Yes, I’m aware I’m very late to the party but that’s how this old b*tch rolls.) But seriously, I’m giving up two TV nights for this book. @rfkuang.bsky.social
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Julie Poole @juliepoole.bsky.social · 18/05/2025
I'm having a hard time coming to terms with the fact that Season 2 of Severance is just bad. I don't know what happened to the writing but I can picture it all melting down in the writer's room. Everyone under pressure. Lots of different "visions" and no secret sauce.
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