Word: amas
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...those most in need of improved health care are virtually powerless to initiate change in the current system. They are powerless against an awesome wall of opposition. First, there is the American Medical Association (AMA) which, valuing its autonomy like a tortoise values its shell, is inclined to exert negative pressure on any proposal that would result in the decline of physicians' incomes. Needless to say, the idea of eliminating "fee for service" payment is clobbered with a hammer every time it raises its tiny head. Then there are the insurance lobbies and health industry lobbies which are opposed...
...faith to block any census that might change the original 1932 figures. Such friction might well have been enough to spark violence, but the present explosion has defied control because of still other complicating factors. Christians and Moslems alike are subdivided into sects, each headed by bosses (zu'ama) who have used patronage to build iron loyalty, as well as personal militias...
Though the country was coming apart, Lebanon's political leaders seemed utterly incapable of finding a solution. In fact they were part of the problem. Many are zu'ama who solemnly discuss cease-fires even as their troops are shooting away. President Suleiman Franjieh, whose base is a virtually feudal Christian hill village outside Tripoli, so thoroughly detests Premier Rashid Karami, a Sunni Moslem, that they can barely work together. Though Karami began seeking a solution in Parliament last week, so many of its 99 deputies refused to venture out in the line of fire that...
Edgar Beddingfield Jr. said the AMA would oppose any bill that "would erode private initiative in any section of the health fields," and said health insurance companies should compete with each other to ensure good coverage...
...AMA proposals defend consumers' choice of existing insurance companies, while the Kennedy proposal would eliminated all but 15 federally approved companies...