Did you know that almost 90 percent of adults are confused by the jargon that the health care industry uses? This problem has only increased as the nation, including our home state of Colorado, makes the push to get more people enrolled in health insurance programs, a noble effort that is becoming bogged down due to the way that basic health services are being explained.
In this opinion piece for Health News Colorado, I address the need for a simpler language to help improve the level of health literacy, which is the ability to understand and act on basic health information and services. The main theme of the article? We need to simplify the language that we use to describe health-related issues to ensure that everyone receives appropriate care, at the appropriate time, for the appropriate cost.
