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I made this point briefly in comments on Monday, but after reading coverage yesterday of the CBO report on the Senate healthcare plan, it probably deserves a quick front page post of its own.

The CBO report says that the average cost of an individual policy will go up under the Senate plan.  (The cost of group coverage goes down slightly.)  However, this is because CBO expects that people will be attracted, on average, to policies that are more generous.  Roughly speaking, CBO expects the average policy to get 30 percent better but cost only about 10 more.  Subsidies will then lower this cost further for most families.

That’s a pretty good deal, and it doesn’t mean that the Senate bill raises the cost of individual health insurance.  It means that people are buying better insurance.  In fact, if you compare similar policies with similar coverage, they cost less under the Senate bill.  This is the comparison that Jonathan Gruber was trying to make in my original post.  He figures that costs will go down about 5%, while the CBO report itself figures 7-10%.

Bottom line: premium costs will go up for some people, but not for most.  And if you choose to buy a policy similar to the one you have today, your cost will almost certainly go down.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists 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 hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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