The California Physicians Alliance is a left-of-center nonprofit organization that advocates for government-controlled, single-payer health care, both in California and across the United States. ¹

It has largely merged with Physicians for a National Health Program, a national group advocating for government-run health care. ²

Background

The California Physicians Alliance (CaPA) claims to have 7,000 affiliated physicians, medical professionals, and medical students. ³

The organization was founded in 1987 in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 1998, CaPA became a statewide organization. ⁴ Michael Pincus was the leader of the organization from 1987 through 1991. ⁵

CaPA was a member of Health Access (HA) and Physicians for a National Health Program, a national network of organizations that promote government-controlled, single-payer health care in the United States. CaPA has largely merged with Physicians for a National Health Program. ⁶

Advocacy

In 2014, CaPA established a three-pronged strategy to help people immediately access publicly funded healthcare, advocate for achievable short-term public healthcare expansion and create a roadmap to implementing a government-run socialist single-payer health care system. ⁷

CaPA backed several left-of-center health care bills such and coordinated closely with left-of-center advocacy organizations, including the Berkeley Gray Panthers and the Sacramento Central Labor Council of the AFL-CIO. ⁸

After Congress rejected a single-payer health care plan pushed by the Clinton administration in 1994, CaPA strongly advocated for a single-payer measure in California that eventually failed. ⁹

CaPA works to train future health care and medical professionals to become advocates for government-controlled, single-payer health care. ¹⁰ The organization launched its college student division in 2008, called the California Health Professional Student Alliance (CHPSA). CHPSA includes medical students, undergraduate students, and public health students on college campuses across California. ¹¹

Leadership

Beatriz Sosa-Prado is the executive director of California Physicians Alliance. Sosa-Prado is a doctoral student in public health at the University of California, Merced. Firooz Kabir is the associated director of CaPA. Kabir co-founded the University of California, San Diego California Health Professional Student Alliance chapter in 2013 and sat as its president for two years. ¹²

Steve Tarzynski is the president of the CaPA board of directors. He has been a practicing pediatrician for more than four decades and is a partner in the Southern California Permanente Medical Group. ¹³

Hillary Siebens is the vice president of the board for CaPA. In 2009, she helped develop the Los Angeles California Physicians Alliance chapter. Bill Tarran and Jim Kratzer are the treasurer and secretary of CaPA respectively. Tarran is a podiatrist, and Kratzer is a pediatrician. ¹⁴

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