Julia Métraux

San Francisco

@MotherJones reporter covering disability • Alum @UCBSoJ • she/her • Say hello: [email protected] • Please DM instead of @-ing me on story ideas

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Articles

HHS plans to cut funds used to investigate abuse at group homes

3 days ago | motherjones.com | Julia Métraux

On Wednesday, a leaked draft Health and Human Services budget document revealed, among other sweeping cuts to health- and disability-related services, that Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s department plans to defund protection and advocacy services for people with developmental disabilities—including autistic people, about whom Kennedy also spreads harmful disinformation.
Tariffs are about to hit lifesaving medical equipment

6 days ago | motherjones.com | Julia Métraux

For millions of disabled people, essential health devices known as durable medical equipment, or DME—think of CPAP machines or in-home dialysis equipment—help them both remain at home and stay alive. Donald Trump’s recent wave of tariffs, extremely broad in both the imports and countries they target, are still at a new 10 percent baseline in many cases—but they’re likely to raise the costs of medical devices, putting people’s ability to afford it (and providers’ ability to supply it) in jeopardy.
RFK Jr. Says There Are No Autistic Poets. We Asked an Autistic Poet.

1 week ago | motherjones.com | Julia Métraux

To Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F.
How to Call Congress-When the Phone Isn’t an Option

1 week ago | motherjones.com | Julia Métraux

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters. As someone who is deaf, Sara Nović says, “the phone has long been my nemesis.” Nović, an organizer and author of the novel True Biz, has tried to call their representatives in Congress by phone—but they’ve been hung up on.
In first post-presidency speech, Biden calls to treat disabled people with dignity

1 week ago | motherjones.com | Julia Métraux

On Tuesday, former President Joe Biden gave his first speech following the end of his presidency in January, at the Chicago national conference of Advocates, Counselors, and Representatives for the Disabled. “Everyone deserves to be treated with dignity,” Biden said in a speech that ran just under 30 minutes. “That means making sure that more than 60 million Americans who live with disabilities are treated with dignity. That is who we are as Americans.”His successor may disagree.
Veterans Affairs backtracked on his cancer treatment. He blames DOGE.

2 weeks ago | motherjones.com | Julia Métraux

In February, after Donald Trump returned to office, Army veteran Mark Puhl’s medical requests to the Department of Veterans Affairs—for surgery and a chemotherapy port, both related to cancer for which he had already received care through the VA—were denied. Puhl, who lives in Phoenix, Arizona, holds the cost-cutting efforts of Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” responsible. “They approved me to see the surgeon who would do the surgery,” Puhl, 37, said.
For some disabled protestors, “Hands Off” went virtual

2 weeks ago | motherjones.com | Julia Métraux

At a Hands Off rally for people with Long Covid, Amanda Finley was filled with emotions. She talked about how devastated she was to lose people who had suffered from the condition and died due to a lack of support, and talked about how she, an Internal Revenue Service employee, had learned just on Friday that Reduction in Forces notices would be sent to her office. But she still chooses to have hope.
ICE is reportedly violating detained Tufts student’s right to medical care

2 weeks ago | motherjones.com | Sophie Hurwitz |Julia Métraux

In the ten days since Tufts University PhD student Rümeysa Öztürk was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, her lawyers say their client has had three asthma attacks. During that time, according to three Democratic Senators and Öztürk’s lawyers, ICE has not provided the detained student her inhaler, or other medication required by law.
RFK Jr.’s HHS Just Dismantled a Center Focused on Efficiency

3 weeks ago | motherjones.com | Julia Métraux

On Tuesday, in a series of emails sent at 5 a.m. Eastern Time, all employees—around 20—of the federal Administration for Community Living’s (ACL) Center for Policy and Evaluation were laid off. This follows the news last week that ACL, a subsidiary of the Department of Health and Human Services responsible for key issues around disability and aging, would essentially be shut down as part of a massive restructuring and firing campaign led by HHS head Robert F.
RFK Jr. moves to close Administration for Community Living

3 weeks ago | motherjones.com | Julia Métraux

On Thursday, the federal Department of Health and Human Services moved, through a department-wide restructuring order, to eliminate the Administration for Community Living (ACL), a subsidiary established in 2012 to support disabled and aging people—part of a broader series of cuts that will see the firing of some 10,000 HHS staff.