C. P. S. Coup

California Physicians Service, a plan for voluntary prepaid medical care, is a favorite American Medical Association candidate to beat off socialized medicine. This week the C.P.S. plan scored a noteworthy coup: at one stroke it spread over much of the West. Teaming up with similar plans in seven other western states (Washington, Oregon, Montana, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas), C.P.S. set up a system of reciprocal services which will cover 1,000,000 members.

For fees ranging from $2.50 a month for a single person to $5 for a family, C.P.S. provides doctoring, nursing, consultation with specialists and hospitalization for industrial groups with individual incomes under $3,000. It has enrolled 92% of California's doctors and 400,000 patients.

C.P.S. differs in one important respect from New York's new Health Insurance Plan (TIME, Nov. 4): unlike H.I.P.'s, its doctors do not practice group medicine. Would C.P.S. team up with H.I.P.? C.P.S. did not say. But its elated director, William M. Bowman, saw C.P.S.'s coup as the start of a nationwide system. Said he: "We expect to see this reciprocity arrangement roll like a barrel clear across the country."

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