Fourteen Dollar Question

Trips to the Hygiene Building usually bring to mind pictures of long lines of pale men and rising thermometers. This year, however, there will be a new look in Harvard's health services. It is too much to hope, of course, that the long lines will disappear, but 15 Holyoke Street will now be the center of a health and insurance plan designed to give all students a bigger bandage for a few extra dollars.

"Bandage" is actually an appropriate word, for much of the plan provides coverage for emergencies, hospitalization, and major illness or injury. The payment of the $14 fee will insure students up to $1,000 for any disability during the academic year, and an additional $5 will continue the policy during the summer. In addition, the plan is effective in other parts of the country and the world, as well as in Cambridge itself.

The plan certainly appears a great step toward complete health insurance. Only about twenty percent of the students now hold some kind of equivalent policy, so the plan is not only justified, but badly needed. It has been a part of overall University recommendations for several years.

Beyond meeting the needs of four-fifths of the University, the plan is completely fair to those who do not choose to participate. Those students who have what they consider adequate coverage already can decline to pay the insurance fee by taking an easy trip to the Hygiene Building--if they are in the College or the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences--or to their respective deans, if they are in other graduate schools. Students must make their decisions quickly--within two weeks of fall registration. Members of the Department of Hygiene are ready to discuss comparative policies with any student, and although they feel the University's plan is about the best possible, the final decision is the student's.

Everyone concerned with setting up the new program expects problems to develop from time to time. Changes will surely be in order after a year's trial, and thought should be given, for example, to giving faculty members coverage. Regardless of future changes, however, a start--and a good one--is underway.