California Plans

In the late 1920's California citizens began to clamor for large-scale, low-cost medical care. Last November, when liberal Democrat Culbert Levy Olson was elected Governor, he promised to sponsor a State system of compulsory health insurance. This threat of "government interference" spurred the California Medical Association, which for over ten years had been hatching health-insurance schemes, to announce a counterplan.

Last week the Association's voluntary insurance scheme, under the leadership of Stanford University's Dr. Ray Lyman Wilbur, went into operation. The rival plans:

C. P. S. California Physicians' Service is the first State-wide system of medical care in the U. S. Insurance is limited to employed groups of five or more persons whose incomes are less than $3,000 a year. For rates of $2.50 a month per person, subscribers will receive complete medical and surgical care and three weeks' hospitalization for any one illness.

Patients will choose their own doctors and doctors will send their bills to the organization, will receive standard sums. All 6,000 members of the California Medical Association are expected to pay a $5 initiation fee and join the organization.

Administration Health Insurance. While C. P. S. in practice will cover only workers averaging less than $60 a week, Governor Olson's "administration" bill proposes to include higher income groups and unemployed. The bill promises State benefits to workers who are unemployed because of illness and makes allowances for dental care as well as complete medical, surgical and hospital service. Patients will have the right to choose their own physicians, and registered doctors will be paid standard rates.

To foot the doctors' bill, Governor Olson proposes a graduated payroll tax on employes and employers. Chances for the bill's passage last week seemed slim, as employers and physicians attacked it.

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