Congress makes the following findings:
(1) Low health literacy is a problem for half of all American adults, or 100,000,000 individuals.
(2) Health literacy problems impact health care cost, quality of care, and health outcomes.
(3) Ensuring that individuals have health literacy skills is critical to their ability to function effectively as patients and health care consumers.
(4) Health literacy skills are needed to communicate with health care providers, to understand self-care instructions, to understand and complete medical forms, to comply with treatment regimens, and to complete a host of other important health care tasks.
(5) Low health literacy costs billions of dollars each year in avoidable health care expenses, the majority of which is borne by the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
(6) The elderly and chronically ill are among those most at-risk of low health literacy. Those with the greatest health care needs are the heaviest users of health care and may be least able to respond to their health situation.
(7) The Institute of Medicine's landmark report published in 2004, `Health Literacy: A Prescription to End Confusion', identifies health literacy as `critical to successful health care'.
(8) Former Surgeon General Carmona concluded that `health literacy can save lives, save money, and improve the health and well-being of millions of Americans'.
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