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Mandi Spishak-Thomas

@aspishakthomas.com

960 followers 1.4K following 180 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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Mandi Spishak-Thomas @aspishakthomas.com · 23d

New blog out today for @milbankfund.bsky.social where we reflect on state-funded solutions to insurance coverage for children, regardless of immigration status. To date, 15 states have a policy covering immigrant children and 7 have gone a step further to include undocumented adults or older adults.

Milbank Memorial Fund & The Milbank Quarterly @milbankfund.bsky.social · 23d

Longstanding evidence shows that insuring children, regardless of immigration status, improves access to preventive care, reduces uncompensated care costs, and enhances long-term health outcomes.

Covering Uninsured Children: State Solutions for Immigrant Children | Milbank Memorial Fund

As of 2023, nearly 3 million children in the United States remained uninsured, largely due to immigration-related exclusions in public insurance programs like Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insura...

www.milbank.org

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Doug Gordon @brooklynspoke.bsky.social · 9h

Public comment period at our CB6 meeting in the Court Street bike lane. First comment: “I’m in favor of a bike lane on Court Street, just not this design.”

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Mandi Spishak-Thomas @aspishakthomas.com · 1d

Absolutely, agreed!

Mandi Spishak-Thomas @aspishakthomas.com · 1d

3) Cyclists are safer !! Bikes can now travel safely in a protected bike lane on one unified side of the street making them more visible. Now, cars can predict where to look for cyclists before making turns and cannot pull into a bike lane for loading/unloading forcing bikes into traffic.

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Mandi Spishak-Thomas @aspishakthomas.com · 1d

2) Pedestrians have an easier time crossing the street. Prior to the redesign, as a pedestrian you had to frogger across the aforementioned double parking and two lanes of fast traffic. There are more cross walks and simply less cars not to mention those that remain are traveling the ~speed limit~

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Mandi Spishak-Thomas @aspishakthomas.com · 1d

1) Court is quieter. There is less honking as cars previously had to navigate double parking on either side of the street from cars and delivery vehicles as well as bikes who were inconsistent about what side they biked on without any bike lane protected or otherwise.

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Mandi Spishak-Thomas @aspishakthomas.com · 1d

One week in from someone who lives on Court Street: the new single traffic lane street and protected bike lane has been life changing, here are just 3 reasons why (in no particular order).

Doug Gordon @brooklynspoke.bsky.social · 1d

A sure sign of anti-bike concern trolling is an elected official who lives nowhere near the bike lane in question suddenly becoming *very* concerned about emergency response time, a thing she would never do if this were just normal bumper-to-bumper traffic on a street with no bike lane.

Post on X from Joann Ariola:

Joann Ariola NYC Council District 32
@JoannAriola32
Can somebody at
@NYC_DOT
please explain to me how this is even remotely acceptable? With the new parking lane, cars can't pull out of the way to let this ambulance pass.

When every second counts in an emergency, this could literally mean death for someone in a crisis. I have heard from so many people about how this Court Street redesign was a terrible idea, and this really seals the deal. Someone could be dead because of this.

Local Law 6 of 2025 - which I introduced, and was passed - mandates that local firehouses MUST be consulted before changes like this go into effect. Did the local firehouse sign off on this?

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Lisa Schiff @lschiff.bsky.social · 2d

Book bans are a symptom; library governance ensuring intellectual freedom is the prevention and cure. Join your library board or Friends of the Library group and become a #LibraryDefender! Check out librariesforthepeople.org to learn how! #BannedBooks

For The People

librariesforthepeople.org

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Mandi Spishak-Thomas @aspishakthomas.com · 2d

This #BannedBooksWeek it is more important than ever to celebrate the freedom to read and step into roles that continue to fight for one of the last free spaces, libraries. We created a Friends of the Library zine so you can learn how! www.librariesforthepeople.org/resources#fo...

Resources — For The People

www.librariesforthepeople.org

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Phil Rocco @philiprocco.bsky.social · 4d

Happily @adrianna.bsky.social and colleagues have this covered in @jhppl.bsky.social : read.dukeupress.edu/jhppl/articl...

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Mandi Spishak-Thomas @aspishakthomas.com · 5d

👇🏼This. People who can work, want and do work. Work requirements only serve to increase the number of uninsured people in America.

The Commonwealth Fund @commonwealthfund.org · 5d

The majority of people with Medicaid who can work are already working.

However, in 2027, #Medicaid will add national work requirements for the first time.

When Arkansas added work requirements in 2018, more than 18,000 people lost coverage.

See our explainer to learn more about work requirements.

Work Requirements for Medicaid Enrollees

Explore Medicaid work requirements, current federal and state updates, and their impact on enrollees in this explainer.

bit.ly

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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 5d

🚨🚨 My dear friend and fellow academic, the Palestinian American sociologist @emanabdelhadi.bsky.social has been taken by the Cook County Sheriff near Chicago. They have not mirandized her. Please signal boost. All eyes on Broadview for Eman and the community she was defending 🚨🚨

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Larry Levitt @larrylevitt.bsky.social · 5d

New: Broad support across the political spectrum for extending enhanced ACA premium tax credits.

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Katie Bergh @katiebergh.bsky.social · 7d

Important #WIC update: With available federal funding sources, WIC should be able to continue operations for now. States should also do everything they can to prevent disruption & communicate with families so they don't miss out on benefits. @zoeneuberger.bsky.social has the details 👇

Zoe Neuberger @zoeneuberger.bsky.social · 7d

Bottom line for #WIC under the shutdown: WIC should continue operating uninterrupted for about 2 weeks (varying by state) & states should use their own funds to keep it open beyond that so babies, young children & new & expecting parents don’t miss out on critical benefits.

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Gideon Lukens @gidlukens.bsky.social · 7d

Premium tax credit enhancements help tipped workers, veterans, small business workers, farmers, and older people afford health coverage. Their premiums will soon spike and millions of them will lose coverage if the enhancements expire. (1/5)

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Molly Shah @mommunism.bsky.social · Oct 7

I’m going to make individual posts for the Palestinian accounts I’m boosting today so they don’t get lost in a thread but if you are looking for them all in one place I’ll link them here 🔽

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Doug Gordon @brooklynspoke.bsky.social · 8d

Approximately 75% of households on the Upper West Side are car-free. Plus, 13,000 parking spaces in a neighborhood that's home to about 214,000 residents is nothing. This is an elected official listening to a loud and entitled minority and prioritizing the storage of private cars over public safety.

Streetsblog NYC @nyc.streetsblog.org · 8d

UWS Council Member Gale Brewer changed her mind on the daylighting bill after DOT officials projected that the street safety initiatives would remove 13,000 parking spaces per district — double the 6,500 avg. spots that DOT officials previously estimated under oath in April.

Gale's A-Blowin': Brewer Abandons Daylighting Bill After Push By Parking-First DOT - Streetsblog New York City

DOT's anti-daylighting "scare tactics" have peeled off Council Member Gale Brewer, who says the policy will gobble up too many parking spots.

buff.ly

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Mandi Spishak-Thomas @aspishakthomas.com · 8d

This is a great thread. When I was on the bargaining committee of my grad student union we secured a contract with compensation increases, health benefits, and other key wins that would be implemented after I graduated that year. We need to move beyond ourselves and think generationally.

Kendra "Gloom is My Beat" Pierre-Louis @kendrawrites.com · 9d

I've been thinking about that Klein and Ta-Nehisi Coates convo. Specifically, how Klein kept saying that Coate's pragmatism in positioning his work in line with those who came before him fighting for rights they knew were unlikely to come to fruition in their lifetimes was depressing /1

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Al Jazeera English @aljazeera.com · 9d

Israeli soldiers were filmed detaining two Palestinian children in Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, while demanding to know their father’s whereabouts.

When a passerby intervened and urged their release because of their young age, a soldier replied, “I don’t care”.

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Matthew Cortland (they) @matthewcort.land · 9d

The healthcare service and delivery system is crushingly difficult to navigate now. We're seeing entire organizations cancel telehealth visits because of the impending-gov-shutdown-Medicare-telehealth-expiration

Those healthcare orgs aren't willing to accept *any* risk they won't get paid.

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Jessica Ellis @baddestmamajama.bsky.social · 10d

As regular people, we can do a few things. Lobby venues to require masking and HEPA air filtration, and lobby powerful voices to demand these things as part of their appearance. But mostly and most effectively, we can mask. Your mask can be decorated or bedazzled! But it should be on.

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Jessica Ellis @baddestmamajama.bsky.social · 10d

It’s time to be honest about Covid. If you’re a healthy person, no one is suggesting you live in lockdown in 2025 (if you’re a disabled people they tell you to do this constantly.) But events refusing to consider covid are knowingly endangering your health, and the health of those you come home to.

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Kelly @broadwaybabyto.bsky.social · 10d

A majority of children rely on Medicaid.

A majority.

It’s not just the disabled or unemployed who are going to lose their healthcare… it’s kids too.

The “pro life” party has no issue ripping medical care away from millions of children… all so the rich can get richer.

haggis222.bsky.social @haggis222.bsky.social · 10d

Just saw this stunning statistic:

westvirginiawatch.com/2025/09/26/r...

A majority of US children rely on Medicaid or CHIP, new study finds • West Virginia Watch

A majority of children in the United States rely on Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program at some point by their 18th birthday.

westvirginiawatch.com

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Rutgers CSHP @rutgerscshp.bsky.social · 14d

This week’s #WednesdayWisdom comes from a new @milbankfund.bsky.social blog post co-authored by CSHP Assistant Research Professor @aspishakthomas.com and Research Coordinator Allison Oh.

The full #blog post is available here: go.rutgers.edu/lo7kicw4

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Mandi Spishak-Thomas @aspishakthomas.com · 20d

Literally!! If he gets his godforesaken casino than we (Mets fans) get whatever we want, including Pete Alonso contract and an actual express 7 train/real super 7 post games (the current construction schedule is indefinite).

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Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 20d

IT'S OFFICIAL: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York State, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and New York City have formed the Northeast Public Health Collaborative.

The collaborative will issue their own vaccine recommendations and coordinate public health efforts.

Map of Regional Public Health Coalitions

Northeast Public Health Collaborative (Blue)

West Coast Health Alliance (Yellow)

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