Improving Diabetes Care: The Model for Health Care Reform

A s policy makers now debate the el-ements of health care reform, themedical management of diabetes is an excellent “case study ” and in nearly all ways epitomizes the problems the coun-try faces. The most obvious way in which diabetes epitomizes the need for health care reform is that chronic diseases, not acute infectious disorders, are the current and growing health-related financial drain on the country. Of the six leading causes of death in the U.S., four are chronic diseases (1). In 2005, 44 % of adult Americans had at least one chronic condition, and diabetes (without compli-cations), hypertension, and hyperlipid-emia were the three most prevalent,