Compulsory Blue Cross Endorsed by Committee

Compulsory Blue Cross health insurance for all students is one of the major recommendations of the Corporation Committee investigating medical facilities in the University, it was learned yesterday.

Stanley F. Teele, associate dean of the Business School and a member of the committee, said that arguments for Blue Cross coverage formed much of the Committee's report, which also urged the construction of a new medical center between Dunster and Holyoke Sts.

A survey of students taken by the Committee had shown that about one-third of the University is already enrolled in the Blue Cross plan. This possibility of saving money for many students was the chief reason for the Committee's proposal. Under the new system, the medical fee would be about $50 a year, but would provide hospitalization care as well as the infirmary coverage of the present $37.50 rate.

New Plan Cheaper

The Committee's final report, which went to President Pusey and the Corporation last month, suggested also that operating costs of the non-profit Blue Cross, which insures 1 1/2 million people, would be cheaper than the Harvard system, which covers 9,000.

At the present time, there is disagreement over the extent of the proposed coverage. Graduate school representatives would like to make the program compulsory for 12 months. Many officials within the College prefer to limit it to the nine months of College terms.

Teele said that Blue Cross would be especially valuable at the graduate schools because of the large number of married students. "At the Business School, for example, where most of our men are married, they can extend the plan to cover their wives and families," Teele remarked.

New Hospital Requisite

He explained also that Blue Cross would not be accepted without construction of the new hospital-infirmary. Administrators of the Blue Cross system will not accept blanket College coverage so long as Stilliman is the only health center. The Medical School is trying compulsory Blue Cross this year, but the experiment includes the uses of neighboring Peter Bent Brigham Hospital.

Arlie V. Bock, Henry K. Oliver Professor of Hygiene, has said that he was opposed to introducing Blue Cross, though he supports the proposed central medical building. Bock thought Harvard could provide better and cheaper service than an outside plan.

Chairman of the Hygiene Committee is Charles R. Cherington '35, professor of Government, who replaced Henry L. Shattuck '01 in that post when Shattuck resigned last fall to head a government committee on German was prisoners.