Uninsured Madness
It's like "Reefer Madness." Full of fantasy. Divorced from reality. Michael Cannon draws our attention to a seven-year old study published by the Urban Institute. University of Chicago economists Helen Levy and David Meltzer review all of the literature up to that point and conclude:
There is no evidence at this time that would allow us to say whether money aimed at improving health would be better spent on health insurance or on inner-city clinics, community-based screening programs for hypertension, or advertising campaigns to encourage good nutrition, to name just a few possibilities.
See also my Health Alert on this subject.
Levy and Meltzer (2001) found that some subgroups experienced better heath due to insurance (e.g. babies of at-risk mothers). However, it was much more problematic to attribute health status to insurance.