"Reality has a way of dampening Utopian plans for low cost health insurance for all. Rates go up or they start refusing certain types of care to students to keep claims down -- those are the choices."
Yep. And then there's the over-utilization problem that the article highlights: if something is supposedly "free", then people will irresponsibly use it until it is completely drained. ("Free condoms? Awesome!- I'll have a thousand"...). There's only one option after that point: premiums go up.
It certainly lessens what would otherwise be a free market tendency for price and demand to come to an equilibrium.