{"id":12352,"date":"2020-11-05T18:19:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-05T18:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=12352"},"modified":"2020-11-05T18:19:00","modified_gmt":"2020-11-05T18:19:00","slug":"health-literacy-takes-center-stage-as-pandemic-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=12352","title":{"rendered":"Health literacy takes center stage as pandemic continues"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"980\" height=\"654\" src=\"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/gr-71903-1-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12329\" srcset=\"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/gr-71903-1-1.jpg 980w, https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/gr-71903-1-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/gr-71903-1-1-768x513.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 980px) 100vw, 980px\" \/><figcaption><strong><em>A survey on social determinants of health found that 48% of respondents indicated health literacy is one of the top five social issues that affect patient outcomes.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0Photo: ElenaBuzmakova_Borisova\/Pixabay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>By ROZ BROWN<br><\/strong>Texas News Service<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 The uninsured rate in Texas surged to 29% earlier this year \u2013 with nearly 1-in-3 Texans younger than 65 living without health insurance. That\u2019s the highest rate in the nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Serena Bumpus, director of practice with the Texas Nurses Association, said&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www2.deloitte.com\/content\/dam\/Deloitte\/us\/Documents\/life-sciences-health-care\/us-lshc-addressing-social-determinants-of-health.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">research suggests<\/a>&nbsp;many people lack information about health care coverage options \u2013 especially if they\u2019ve lost a job and health insurance because of COVID-19. She said it\u2019s important that Texans living without insurance do their homework ahead of open enrollment for the Affordable Care Act, which starts on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOnly 12% of the adult population is considered to be proficient in understanding health-related issues and terminology in general,\u201d Bumpus said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She said a lack of literacy about health plans and personal issues often can result in surprise medical bills. And she noted even highly literate people may have difficulty understanding medical jargon, or a familiar word may not be understood in a medical context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An estimated 659,000 adults in Texas lost health care coverage along with their jobs between February and May of this year as employers laid off workers due to the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>October is designated Health Literacy Month, and Dr. Donna Christensen, board member with Consumers for Quality Care and a former U.S. representative, said about 40% of people are not as \u201chealth literate\u201d as they ought to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAnd that can result in not only picking the wrong insurance but even in just reading a prescription, understanding the illnesses that you may be suffering from,\u201d Christensen said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She urges consumers to avoid short-term limited-duration insurance. Said while it may appear to be a less expensive option, consumers can incur increased out-of-pocket costs, and pre-existing conditions are probably not going to be covered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More information is available at&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/consumers4qualitycare.org\/issues\/healthliteracy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">consumers4qualitycare.org\/healthliteracy<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By ROZ BROWNTexas News Service AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 The uninsured rate in Texas surged to 29% earlier this year \u2013 with nearly 1-in-3 Texans younger than 65 living without health insurance. That\u2019s the highest rate in the nation. Serena Bumpus, director of practice with the Texas Nurses Association, said&nbsp;research suggests&nbsp;many people lack information about health [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":12329,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12352"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12353,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12352\/revisions\/12353"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}