Harvard May Enlarge Health Care Services

The Ad Hoc University Health Services Committee, appointed last October by President Pusey, has announced its recommendations for improvements in the Health Services. The most important change proposed by the Committee is the opening of Stillman Infirmary and the Health Services to dependents of employees, students, and faculty.

The Committee has worked on the premise "that Harvard has accepted and should continue to accept responsibility to provide appropriate health care to the members of the Harvard family'"-which has been defined as employees, students, and faculty.

Harvard's resent Comprehensive Medical Plan, which provides Blue Cross-Blue Shield health insurance, is available to all members of the 'Harvard family' and their dependents.

The Committee, chaired by Milton Katz of the Law School, recommends that a more systematic effort be made to alert employees, students, and faculty that their dependents are eligible for Comprehensive Medical insurance. The Committee suggests that coverage be provided automatically for dependents unless an individual requests that they be excluded.

The Comprehensive Medical Plan covers health care from most hospitals and doctors in the area. The difference between the present system and that proposed by the Committee is that currently Harvard employees, students, and faculty can use Stillman Infirmary and the Health Services, while their dependents who are covered under the plan cannot.

Students are automatically billed $120 per year with their tuition fees for the Comprehensive Medical Plan. Members of the faculty and employees pay monthly rates of $8 for a single person and $20 for a family.

Stillman Infirmary is now being used to approximately 60 per cent of capacity. If the Committee's recommendation the offer service to dependents is implemented by the incoming health Services Director [the present Director, Dana L. Farnsworth, is leaving in June], it is likely that the Health Services would have to expand in order to accommodate the additional 15,000 people. The sixth floor of Holyoke Center, is a possible site for the expansion.

The Ad Hoc Committee, whose members include Harvard faculty members and leaders in medical education at Harvard, Pittsburgh, and Stanford, also emphasizes in its report the need for greater communication between the Health Services staff and the student body.