Summary: The crucial missing piece of the ACA, the Affordable Care Act, according to host Christopher Springmann, is health literacy.The crucial missing piece of the ACA, the Affordable Care Act, according to host Christopher Springmann, is health literacy. Simply put, it's one thing to sign folks up for the ACA, it's something else to train people to be effective, efficient patients by changing their old ways of engaging the American healthcare system. It's all about which door do you want to walk through for service, the emergency room or the hospital front door. Bill Wright, a research scientist with Providence Health and Services in Portland, Oregon, discusses the visionary Oregon Health Study (2008) the first-ever randomized controlled experiment to measure the impact of access to Medicaid for low-income adults. The economic and social consequences of not changing patient behavior and delivery methodology are staggering. In 2012, Providence Health and Services alone spent almost $88 million for free and reduced-cost medical care, health services for under-served patients, and other government-sponsored medical care.
