There is, for starters, some new feedback from Massachusetts' universal coverage program: From a public health standpoint, coverage for all makes a big difference. More people have cut back on smoking because more people are either in Medicaid, which pays for smoking patches and other quitting-assistance or are seeing physicians who lead them to the same help. And the rate of colonoscopy screenings is up, as is the rate of flu immunization shots.
Then there's a decades-ago experiment in Florida with health-insurance coops -- much like the non-profit co-ops under discussion for the national health plan. The results of Florida's experiment: Not so good. The co-ops were out of business within six years.
