Improving Chronic Illness Care

The article by Wagner et al, on Improving Chronic Illness Care states, that in order for improvements to happen, there must be changes in our care delivery system. A greater emphasis on prevention would ultimately be the best solution if people actually followed through with preventive behaviors. However, we live in a world where it is difficult to monitor people’s behavior because there are many choices of lifestyles. Also we must remember that nothing is perfect and there will always exist diseases due to biological reasons. In this case, we still need to come up with a plan to improve chronic disease care. The article, states that there has been advancement in the effectiveness of care of major chronic illnesses, but few people actually benefit from these advances. What good is it to have all these great solutions if they are not being effectively disseminated across the country, if not all people have access to long-term health care, if only a few people can afford treatments, and resources are limited? I believe that in order to reduce the prevalence of chronic illnesses, there needs to be a change in the health care system that not only puts a greater emphasis on prevention, but facilitates access to health care, improves long-term care, and provides community level resources to monitor and support healthy behaviors for those with chronic illness.