November 8, 2005
To Faculty, Staff and Students,
I write to let you know that the Task Force on Medical Care for the MIT Community, appointed in September 2004, has completed its work. The task force was charged by my predecessor, President emeritus Charles Vest, to provide a comprehensive review of MIT's health care and medical insurance programs.
The report of the task force makes clear that high quality, accessible and affordable health care is a matter of great importance to the members of our community. While the task force makes a number of recommendations, it concludes that the basic model of health care and insurance that has been in place for several decades has served MIT very well.
I want to assure you that we intend to retain the present basic model of on-campus health care for our community, even as we examine the specific recommendations of the task force. As a next step I am asking Sherwin Greenblatt, our interim Executive Vice President, to undertake an analysis of the financial and operational implications of the report's recommendations.
I am enormously grateful to Professor Paul Joskow and the members of the task force for the very thoughtful and careful assessment that they have undertaken on an issue that is so important to the quality of life at MIT.
Sincerely,
Susan Hockfield
President