From the President
Tom Gaughan, PA
President 2007/2008

My Dear Fellow PA,

Welcome to our website. It is a truly a wonderful tool and source of information for our membership. We hope you will visit often and take a few moments and spend time to fully acquaint yourself with all our site has to offer. Linda Klompus, our Webmaster, does an amazing job of keeping our site up-to-date, informative and looking beautiful. Spend some time here and read about all that is happening with regard to California PAs and our Governor’s Health Care Reform Proposal. This is truly an amazing time!

We have a unique opportunity this year to participate in what may be sweeping health care reform for all of California’s citizens. The Governor is looking to make changes which will hopefully ensure access for all Californian’s to quality, cost-effective health care services. CAPA wants to be certain that PAs have a seat at the table for all the discussions regarding what direction these changes will take. We want to be certain to ensure that California PAs will have an important role in a team approach to providing increased access for California health care consumers. To that end, CAPA has introduced a bill, AB 3, which we hope will wind its way successfully through the Legislature. This bill would seek to remove barriers to PA practice and thus enable PAs to provide the increased access to care that our government is seeking and which our patient’s deserve. You can keep up with our progress legislatively right here on the CAPA Website.

PAs often ask me what they can do to help CAPA in these legislative efforts. My response is simple. One can take the time to contact our Government Affairs Committee (GAC) and see if help is needed with committee work. Or, you could become part of our “Grassroots” network and be a local contact which the GAC can count on when we need to have PAs across the state contacting their Senators and Assemblypersons. At the very least, every PA in California needs; no must, to contribute to CAPA’s Political Action Committee (PAC). Many PAs, including myself, are adverse to the fact that it takes money to get and keep the ear of legislators. However, the fact remains that that is the reality of how the political process works. We are probably the newest of health care professionals and we are maturing to the political realities of survival for our profession. We need PAC donations from our members so we can support those candidates who share our political goals and perspectives. We may not use membership dues for political contributions to candidates. So if you are like me and want to see positive changes made in our ability to practice as PAs, PLEASE, take a moment to send your donation to the CAPA PAC. Do it right from the website!

I want to thank you for being a member of CAPA. Membership is the lifeblood of any organization. Without you, CAPA could not be the wonderful organization that it has become or be able to accomplish the things we do for California PAs. We realize that PAs, like everyone else, have limited resources and need to make choices on how they will spend their hard earned dollars. We feel you have made an excellent choice by being a CAPA member. CAPA is the only organization which exclusively represents PAs here in California and we serve our members professionally and personally. And finally, “thank you” for allowing me to serve as your President this year. This is my second time as CAPA’s President, my last was about 25 years ago…. If some of you “old timers” thought my name was familiar, now you know why. I am honored to have been elected to serve this year and with your help we hope to make it one of CAPA’s best years ever.