Health Literacy & Health Policy: Solving Problems Within Healthcare

This study will reiterate research finding and facts of the positive effects health literate information has on any given populations and the need for more public health polices in health care settings to embrace the science of health literacy. The significance of this study lies in the benefits that health literacy has in improving quality of life, physically, mentally, and financially in regards to health care. The daily communication between doctors and patients are becoming more difficult as health care becomes more complex. An explicit health policy can achieve several things: it defines a vision for the future which in turn helps to establish targets and points of reference for the short and medium term. There are many health policies in place that are helping to advance health care systems as a whole, but unfortunately, nearly half (90 million) of American adults cannot understand basic health information. In return this keeps them from the care they need and is costing the health care industry billions of dollars. This lack of understanding is mainly because health information is often written above the level most people read. In 2010 health literacy entered the mainstream of health policy by becoming part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, i.e. "health reform," the most significant change to health policy in decades. The field of health literacy gained strong momentum from contributors such as Healthy People, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy, now that work is reinforced by the Plain Writing Act of 2010.