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It was harder to find this information, but from what I gathered, the concept of national health insurance first became a topic of discussion during the Truman administration. From 1958 to 1964, controversies rose and a bill was drafted, specifically by who is unknown, but the signing of the act was part of Johnson's Great Society. Though names are not listed, it is said that those who previously worked on the King-Anderson Bill drafted this current Medicaid policy and that Wilbur Cohen, Assistant Secretary for Legislation of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, really pushed for this Medicare bill.  

The study aimed to discover new or more effective methods of studying long term effects of exposure to toxic agents. It describes the new insights including the effectiveness of simple studies, ensuring control groups, and methods to do research by using ecological aspects or involving the community in places where medical researchers are not entirely trusted.

This report is comprised of several parts, beginning with an introduction. The report describes radiation exposure and effects that have been linked to the Fukushima disaster. Then it outlines future goals of increased awareness of the risks of nuclear disasters and the effects of radiation exposure as well as the need for a network of experts capable of sharing knowledge and expertise when needed. Finally the report mentions further studies being completed concerning the effect of radiation on children.

Adriana Petryna has a PhD in Anthropology from UC Berkeley and teaches courses in this field at UPenn. She specializes in globalization and public health as well as medical anthropology. Her interests lie in Europe and the US, mainly the Chernobyl disaster. She centers her work on public and private forms of scientific knowledge production. She is very interested in the way science and technology play a role in the context of crisis.

The film shows the challenging decisions that have to be made by doctors, patients, and family members. Although in the end the decision to continue fighting a terminal illness rests with the patient, their doctors have the enormous responsibility of providing honest medical opinions in a way that allows patients to understand their illness and make educated decisions. The film showed how challenging that is for doctors when their instincts are to keep fighting until the end, to give their patients hope even when a treatment has a slim chance of working and could make the patient sicker.

This program is one of many run by Handicap International, and supported by the United States Agency for International Development. The program was run at Healing Hands for Haiti (http://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-14990-haiti-health-first-in-haiti-tra…), with instructors from the Universidad de Don Bosco in El Salvador.