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CURRENT thought in Washington indicates that some sort of national health insurance will become a reality. Demands for health care services will increase predictably. This fact has led to the concept of the physician's assistant, a new type of health care manpower. An assistant would work with the physician to increase the quality and quantity of his medical care. This concept has received general acceptance at a national level and the legislatures of most states have been considering or are enacting legislation modifying their existing Medical Practices Acts and empowering the state medical boards to establish guidelines and controls for physicians' assistants.
In 1970, a bill (No. 2109) sponsored by Assemblyman Duffy (an optometrist) was enacted in the state of California. Some observers have pointed to this bill as being "a sound piece of legislation." However, little note is made of the fact that the ophthalmologist is singled out and