Left I on the News

It's called Medicare, and here's the latest finding:

If you don't have health insurance, your health gets worse and worse compared with people with health insurance. That changes at age 65, when universal Medicare health care coverage kicks in. Then you stop losing ground -- although you're not likely to become as healthy as someone who had health insurance all along.

And guess what? Healthier people...incur fewer health care costs:

David Schulke, executive vice president of the nonprofit, nonpartisan American Health Quality Association, said the study highlights a basic flaw in the current system.

"There is lasting harm done to the health of people who are uninsured, and they are sicker when they enter the Medicare program," he said. "This suggests that there will be a savings to the Medicare program if insurance coverage is created by Congress for people under the age of 65, because health care of the otherwise uninsured will improve, and they won't be so debilitated by the time they become eligible."