City gets new prescription for better health: Mayor's Healthy Chicago wellness plan outlines areas needing improvement, strategies to achieve it by 2020

Abstract

Vowing to improve the health of Chicagoans and cut the government's soaring health care costs, Mayor Rahm Emanuel went to a sweaty fitness room in Humboldt Park on Tuesday to unveil a comprehensive health agenda that includes a citywide "wellness plan." As part of Emanuel's effort to launch initiatives in his first 100 days, the mayor and Health Commissioner Bechara Choucair presented a Healthy Chicago plan that outlines 12 priority areas — and dozens of measurable health goals the leaders hope to achieve by 2020. The priorities include reduced tobacco use, obesity reduction and prevention, HIV prevention, adolescent health, cancer disparity reduction, better access to health care...