The $15 Question

Twice a year, every student wonders as he pays his medical care bill, "What happens to my $15?" A student council committee tried to answer this last year but found it impossible to discover the disposition of the average fee.

The Hygiene Department has now decided it would like to know the answer to this question too, and has set out to determine all the detailed expenses that will occur this year. If the Department can be successful in this difficult and complicated task, it either will be able to answer the numerous complaints or will find that the students are right. Either way, it is encouraging to see that the Department is now interested in examining itself.

The Council report also made a few suggestions to the Hygiene Department, which were emphatically rejected. Since the Department turned up with a surplus of slightly over $30,000 last year, it is now in a position to consider some of these recommendations. Dr. Bock attributes the surplus primarily to luck, for there were no epidemics last year. But the last few years have been short on epidemics so that the Department has accumulated a $100,000 reserve. This reserve was one of Dr. Bock's goals, and he may justly feel satisfied that it prepares him for an emergency.

Now that the goal has been reached, however, these funds are available for other purposes. Special fees for out-of-hours visits can be eliminated, in spite of the claim that this would encourage students to come for medical care at odd hours. The Hygiene Department can also consider renewing its Ophthalmological Clinic, a wartime casualty that has done excellent work in the past. With such action, the Hygiene Department can greatly improve its relations with students and maybe some of them will stop wondering where their $15 goes.