having earned his medical degree from Harvard
University in 1968.
InNatural Health, Natural Medicine: A Comprehen-
sive Manual for Wellness and Self-Care(1990), Weil
combined practical general information with advice
on specific remedies. He also invited readers to take
responsibility for their own health rather than to rely
on pills. Weil’s study of global medical traditions in-
formed his approach.
While continuing to write popular books for the
general public, Weil continued to be active as a phy-
sician and researcher, publishing articles in schol-
arly journals such as theJournal of Ethnopharmacology
andAncient Mesoamerica.Although some doctors did
not share his inclusiveness of certain non-Western
and folk medical practices, he continued to earn the
respect of his colleagues in the field as well as that of
an expanding and enthusiastic group of readers. In
1996, Weil became the director of the Program in In-
tegrative Medicine at the University of Arizona in
Tucson. It trained physicians in the methods and ap-
plications of his philosophy of preventive medicine.
In the second half of the decade, Weil became
one of the early adopters of the World Wide Web for
the dissemination of medical advice and also started
a monthly publication,Dr. Andrew Weil’s Self-Healing.
In 1997,Timemagazine included Weil in its list of
twenty-five most influential people in the United
States, and he appeared on the covers of the May 12,
1997, and October 17, 2005, issues.
Impact Weil’s philosophy of integrative medicine
was the first truly global approach to the field, em-
bracing the essential scientific value of the world’s
medical traditions. Essentially, this approach utilizes
holistic methods to preserve and maintain health
over long periods of time and Western medicine for
other functions, including situations when rapid in-
tervention is required.
Further Reading
Skow, John.My First Two Weeks on Dr. Weil’s Health Reg-
imen.Time, May 12, 1997, 70.
Weil, Andrew.Eight Weeks to Optimum Health: A Proven
Program for Taking Full Advantage of Your Body’s Natu-
ral Healing Power. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997.
___.Natural Health, Natural Medicine: A Compre-
hensive Manual for Wellness and Self-Care.3ded.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998.
Alice Myers
See also Antidepressants; Cancer research; Cho-
pra, Deepak; Drug use; Food trends; Health care;
Health care reform; Medicine. Welfare reform
The Event U.S. president Bill Clinton signs the
Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity
Reconciliation Act of 1996
Date August 22, 1996The new welfare law embodied practical and philosophical
shifts in the nation’s approach to economic assistance.The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity
Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) stopped
open-ended federal funding of Aid to Families with
Dependent Children (AFDC) and created Tempo-
rary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), a time-
limited program whose provisions also addressed
teenage pregnancy, out-of-wedlock births and child
rearing, and immigration.Title I: Block Grants, Mandatory Work States re-
ceived a fixed amount of federal money each year in
the form of block grants giving states discretion in
how they spent it. In addition to job training, child
care, and cash assistance, block grants were also to
be used for promoting healthy marriages and re-
sponsible fatherhood. Charitable choice provisions
allowed faith-based organizations to compete for
public funding to provide social services.
Families receiving federally funded assistance for
five cumulative years (or less at state option) were no
longer eligible for federally funded cash aid. States
had to move increasing percentages of cash recipi-
ents into work, with penalties for not meeting speci-
fied rates. They could penalize participants for fail-
ure to comply with work-related requirements,
which included subsidized or unsubsidized employ-
ment, on-the-job training, community service, up to
six weeks of job search, and job skills training or edu-
cation directly related to employment.
To receive federal assistance, unmarried minor
parents had to live with an adult or in an adult-
supervised setting and to participate in educational
and training activities. States could deny eligibility
for medical assistance under the Medicaid program
for adults terminated from TANF for failure to
work.910 Welfare reform The Nineties in America