1. The medical treatment of chronic disease accounts for the majority of health care spending in the U.S. Identify and discuss three ways we could potentially reduce spending on chronic diseases while improving health status.
Chronic diseases account for 75% of the nation’s health care spending. Chronic conditions are expected to last a year or more, bestow limits upon the patient’s, and may require ongoing care. They are significant and presently a growing challenge in the U.S. health care system. People with chronic conditions have significantly higher health care costs. It is expected that by 2020, U.S. will spend $685 billion annually on chronic diseases medical costs. By 2015 nursing homes and home health care costs will double to $320 million. There are five conditions accounted for one half of the increases of health care spending. They include: heart disease, pulmonary disease, mental disease, cancer, and hypertension. Alzheimer’s and Diabetes will soon past these as the most common chronic diseases.
Health literacy is a way we could potentially reduce spending on chronic disease while improving health status. Health literacy is defined in the National Library of Medicine as “the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services necessary to make appropriate health decisions”. Examples of understanding basic health information would be the ability to understand instructions on prescription drug bottles, comprehend medical forms, appointment slips, etc. Health literacy truly reflects an individual’s capacity to undertake activities related to their health care. Unfortunately, statistics have shown that only 33.9% of English-speaking respondents had under par health literacy. Statistics measuring the capability to understand instructions of a common x-ray procedure written at the 4th