What Are You Really Covered For?

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Would healthcare costs in the United States be controlled better if people had more “skin in the game”? That is, if instead of insurance picking up the tab for everything, we had to pay more for medical services ourselves, making us a little more selective about what medical care we need and what medical care we don’t? There’s some evidence that says the answer is yes, and if it’s implemented in a smart way (as in France, for example, where copay amounts vary depending on the value of the treatment) there might be a place for this. The problem, as Aaron Carroll pointed out a few days ago, is that Americans already pay more for medical services than residents of most other countries, but our healthcare costs are going up faster anyway.

But why do Americans pay so much? Part of the reason is that published averages include the uninsured, who have high out-of-pocket expenses. But that’s not all. Even the insured, it turns out, have pretty high out-of-pocket expenses. Via Catherine Rampell, here’s a chart from the Labor Department that shows coverage of various conditions by private sector health plans. It includes everything that’s even partly covered, and as you can see, it leaves a lot to be desired. Sure, office visits and basic hospital costs are covered. But if you need an organ transplant or kidney dialysis or diabetes care? You’re probably out of luck. Hell, even maternity care and physical therapy are a crapshoot. But just remember: America has the best healthcare in the world, baby. Don’t let anyone ever tell you otherwise.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

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