Kevin Drum very politely disagrees with Arnold Kling who wrote

There is no actual evidence that the elderly [under Medicare] receive better care, or more cost-effective care, or more egalitarian care than people under 65.

I am astounded by Kling's claim. One has to be very expert in a field to know what is nowhere in the literature. The doubt that medicare is more egalitarian than the mixture of insurance plans and no insurance for people under 65 seems to me to be absurd on its face. I would like to suggest some readings for Kling which are the results of 15 minutes devoted to beginning to try to check his claim. The first few appear to show that some people have actually devoted great effort to carefully planned studies which provide evidence that lack of health insurance is bad for one's health. The studies generally rely on natural experiments and so don't address the exact issue mentioned by Kling, but indirect evidence is evidence. I think it is safe to say very few claims in economics is a solidly proven false as Kling's claim about medical care.

I suggest the followingn readings which are the results of 15 minutes spent searching pubmed.

Search uninsured quality of care
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15930198&query_hl=16

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15762896&query_hl=16

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15741712&query_hl=16

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15741712&query_hl=16


Search Medicar cost effective
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15766380&query_hl=4

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15726699&query_hl=4

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15929245&query_hl=7

Search medicare quality of care

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15916238&query_hl=7

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15879336&query_hl=7

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15859855&query_hl=7


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15842086&query_hl=7

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15835600&query_hl=7

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15808134&query_hl=7