2 Health Experts Clash on Medical Insurance Plans

Compulsory health insurance would inevitably entail regimentation of doctors, Dr. Charles G. Hayden, of the Massachusetts Blue Shield Society, told the first meeting of the Republican Open Forum last night.

But Dr. Franz Goldman, professor at the School of Public Health, declared that the compulsory plan was the only way in which poorer persons could obtain sufficient medical care. Goldman stated that health insurance groups like the Blue Cross and Blue Shield were successful largely in industrial areas with a high income level. Blue Cross covers only between three or four percent of rural populations he said.

Dr. Hayden agreed that the coverage of health plans was spotty and stated that voluntary insurance plans would cover most of Massachusetts. He declared that a compulsory plan would provide "unlimited services for people and limited compensation for doctors." He foresaw a time, under the proposed plan, when "psycho-neurotic people would flock to doctors and waste their time with imaginary ills."