Insuring the Student

After a year of intensive research and with puzzling secrecy, the Corporation's committee on University health facilities has completed its final reports. The few scattered releases from the committee have promised sweeping changes within Harvard's medical setup, including a new health center and a compulsory Blue Cross plan for every University student. Support for a centralized hospital and infirmary has had years to pick up momentum, for while the medical staff and the students have bewailed Stillman's inadequacies, they pointed to the proposed building as a necessity for the near-future. Blue Cross coverage does not have this universal support, however the students are dubious and the Holyoke Street staff is hostile.

There is one excellent argument for Blue Cross which so far seems to have been overlooked. Since it is a consideration closely akin to a pet theory of the hygiene staff, it might well prove a conclusive point: For years the University's staff has been saying that compulsory health insurance under the College's own plan is a necessity because the less affluent students might otherwise pass up care when they need it. But doctors in the area offer a complaint about the present system which is just as hard to answer: many of these same less wealthy men pass by hospitalization when they need it and go instead to cost-free, and inadequate Stillman. Under Blue Cross, however, the student is assured hospital coverage as well as anti-biotics, X-rays, and expensive medicines which are not now included under University coverage. If the medical staff feels that it is important for all students to be covered, and few people would deny the wisdom in this view, then it would seem equally essential that everyone be given the security of hospital coverage and the other advantages of Blue Cross, especially when it is a matter of less than ten dollars a year more.

Another reason for accepting the plan is the committee's finding that one-third of the students here belong to Blue Cross already. Under the present system these men are paying a second fee for a service which gives them less benefits than the Blue Cross provides. Also the married students in the University could extend the new plan to their wives and children. This coverage is denied to them under the present system.

Even some of the administrators within the College who favor the Blue Cross plan question whether it should be made compulsory for 12 or nine months. The spokesmen for the graduate schools, on the other hand, have supported the full-year coverage and their reasons seem logical. Only about seven dollars more per year would insure these extra three months. And since the University officials insist on covering all their men during the school term, there is little reason for them to drop all interest in a student's health with final exams. A twelve month plan would be the more practical and reasonable system for most undergraduates, as well as for those in graduate and professional schools.

Acceptance of the new plan is all-dependent on the construction of a new hygiene plant, for Blue Cross officials will not insure the University with its present facilities. Such a health center has always been advisable; now, with the spur of the added benefits of Blue Cross, it becomes a necessity. A new theatre and increased housing facilities are, of course, also urgent needs. But the funds for the three constructions will no doubt come from very different sources. Health needs never present quite the same problems in raising money which plague other areas in the University; the history of the Medical School attests this. A new medical center, then, may be nearer a reality now than in all the years it has been discussed. And when it is built, Blue Cross coverage should be adopted with it. Both will strengthen the University's lamentable facilities.