Low health literacy: Implications for national health policy

degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions.” A Failing Grade: The 2003 U.S. Department of Education National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) contained, for the first time, a Health Literacy Component. The survey finds that 36 percent of the adult U.S. population has Basic or Below Basic health literacy levels. An Economic Drain: Low health literacy is a major source of economic inefficiency in the U.S. healthcare system. An initial approximation places the order of magnitude of the cost of low health literacy to the U.S. economy in the range of $106 billion to $238 billion annually. This represents between 7 percent and 17 percent of all personal healthcare expenditures