January 23, 2019

The Uninsured Rate Has Soared Under Trump — Maybe

Today Gallup announced that the uninsured rate for all adults had reached 13.7 percent, a rise of nearly three percentage points since Donald Trump was elected:

I’m not quite sure how seriously to take this. There are various surveys of the uninsured rate, and I generally consider the CDC survey to be most accurate. However, it’s also the most out-of-date: the most recent CDC survey is from the second quarter of 2018, nearly a full year ago. The CDC and Gallup survey also measure slightly different things. That said, they produced pretty similar estimates all the way through 2016. Then they started to diverge:

So who’s right? For now, I’d put my money on the CDC, and suggest that there’s no reason to panic over Gallup’s surprisingly high number. But that’s not a sure thing. We’ll just have to wait and see if the CDC number stays flat, or if it starts to catch up to Gallup later in the year.

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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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