UHS To Require Prescription Drug Plan

Beginning this fall, University Health Services will make all full-time students pay for a new drug prescription plan.

Before this program, students had to foot the bill for the first $750 of their drugs. Now, students will be able to pay small co-payments—$10 for generic drugs and $20 for brand name drugs—for up to $3,750 worth of prescriptions.

Everyone using the plan will also have to use a prescription card that they will receive in the mail in early October.

Until then, the UHS pharmacy and the CVS pharmacies will be accepting Harvard IDs instead.

Those who already have prescription coverage with outside insurance companies will still have to pay for the entire drug plan.

This year students had to pay $1,020 instead of $816 last year.

In comparison, MIT offers a free basic health care program along with tuition, according to the MIT medical web site.

MIT students who want or need prescription coverage can purchase extended insurance which includes additional health services along with a drug plan.

This coverage costs $900 for the year, and students pay a $10 co-payment on all prescriptions for up to $2,000 worth of drugs.

Though University Health Services (UHS) Director David S. Rosenthal ’59 said many undergraduates are already covered for drugs under their parents’ health plans, students will still have to pay for the new UHS plan.

“It’s about economy of scales. If you make it elective, it becomes too expensive to make it viable,” Rosenthal said.

The drug plan was the main cause of the 25 percent increase in the Student Health Fee included in tuition, he said.

“We had about three or four percent of an increase in normal medical costs,” Rosenthal said. “The rest was for the prescription coverage.”

Rosenthal said that through the University deans and the Harvard Corporation, it became clear that many students wanted and needed prescription coverage.

Originally UHS made drug coverage elective last year, and agreed to make it mandatory this year.

UHS also worked over the summer with its optional insurance group, Blue Cross Blue Shield, to increase coverage of mental health and chiropractic services.

Rosenthal said Harvard’s drug plan was modeled on other drug benefit programs around the country.

With the school year beginning, Rosenthal said that UHS would be continuing to step up efforts to get information to and from students.

“We’ll be sponsoring health fairs this fall,” he said. “One will be on the green in front of the Science Center on Oct. 2. We’ll be working with nutrition, the MAC, the dining hall services and mental health.”

Additionally, Rosenthal said that he would be working with feedback from students and with financial support from the Corporation to improve Harvard’s dental insurance.

“Questions have been raised about the dental program,” Rosenthal said. “That will be one of the big projects this year.”

—Staff writer Katherine M. Dimengo can be reached at dimengo@fas.harvard.edu.