Prescription for Blue Cross

Blue Cross, the U.S.'s best-known hospital insurance plan, desperately needs a shot in the arm to give it a nationwide growth spurt. And unless the shot is administered soon, Government control of all U.S. hospitals is only a matter of time. These were the blunt alternatives presented to the American Hospital Association in Manhattan last week by John R. Mannix, executive vice president of the Blue Cross of Northeast Ohio.

As Mannix diagnosed it, Blue Cross is suffering from hardening of the arteries, has lost the pioneering spirit that sparked its phenomenal growth in the 1930s. It now has 80-odd plans operating across the U.S., works through an organizational maze of associations, commissions and committees. Some Blue Cross groups have restricted benefits while raising their rates; individually they are not up to dealing with employers and labor unions, which want nationwide coverage.

The Mannix prescription: have the A.H.A.--in cooperation with the American Medical and Dental Associations if they agree--get a federal charter for an American Blue Cross as a voluntary, nationwide organization. Its trustees should include representatives of agriculture, labor and management, preferably appointed by the President of the U.S. Its major aims, Mannix suggested, should be:

P: Comprehensive benefits on a service (rather than cash indemnity) basis, "with an absolute minimum of restrictions and limitations."

P: Wider rural as well as urban coverage for all age groups; special provision for the unemployed and retired, at rates they can afford, with the indigent to be covered by local government contracts.

P: Complete reciprocity between all local plans so that a subscriber can get benefits anywhere in the U.S.

P: No restrictions on drugs or on X ray and other laboratory services (now commonly excluded if they are for diagnosis).

P: Broadening of plans to cover hospitalization for tuberculosis and mental illness.

The U.S., noted Mannix, is the only major nation with no Government-controlled health plan. And it will have such a plan tomorrow, he prophesied gloomily, unless action is taken today to strengthen the voluntary medical system of which voluntary hospitals are a key component.

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