ABSTRACT
State medical associations materially and ideologically extend the political influence of the American Medical Association (AMA) considerably. As of early 1991 President George Bush and his administration had been riding high on the multibillion-dollar "victory" in Iraq and had not yet felt the full political brunt of tens of millions of American people without access to rudimentary health care. The commission was funded by support from corporate manufacturing and insurance interests and included among its members influential individuals associated with manufacturing and insurance corporations, the AMA, organized labor, and other sectors of American political economy. In an apparent accommodation with the commercial insurance industry's political clout, Universal New York Health Care would contract with private insurers to sell state-approved policies. Some industry leaders have been striking out on their own, testing waters outside the confines of trade organization health policy compromises. The magnitude of the industry's financial resources is apparent from their struggle against Proposition 103 itself.
