November/December 2009 Issue

The Public Option

Photos: Radhika Chalasani

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The Public Option

Remote Area Medical was founded in 1985 to treat isolated villagers in the developing world, but the nonprofit has also seen a desperate need for its services in America. In July, RAM provided free care to 2,715 people during a weekend at Virginia’s Wise County Fairgrounds (pictured), where many slept in their cars to nab a spot in line. In August, the volunteers set up for eight days in the Forum near Los Angeles, where they did 8,775 medical checkups, cleaned 1,889 people’s teeth (extracting 2,274 rotten ones), conducted 2,266 eye exams, and filled 1,984 eyeglass prescriptions.

The Public Option

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We've never been very good at being conservative.

And usually, that serves us well in doing the ambitious, hard-hitting journalism that you turn to Mother Jones for. But it also means we can't afford to come up short when it comes to scratching together the funds it takes to keep our team firing on all cylinders, and the truth is, we finished our budgeting cycle on June 30 about $100,000 short of our online goal.

This is no time to come up short. It's time to fight like hell, as our namesake would tell us to do, for a democracy where minority rule cannot impose an extreme agenda, where facts matter, and where accountability has a chance at the polls and in the press. If you value our reporting and you can right now, please help us dig out of the $100,000 hole we're starting our new budgeting cycle in with an always-needed and always-appreciated donation today.

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