Nearly 50% of adults (over 16) in the US are considered to be health care illiterate. That doesn’t simply mean they can’t read. In fact, many can read quite well. It means that they don’t understand enough about their own health status and about the health care systems to be able to even ask the right questions to find out the answers they need. The Costs of Health Care Illiteracy Handing Joe a pamphlet to read about his newly diagnosed type II diabetes won’t help him to understand what diabetes is (it’s not an allergy to table sugar?), how he needs to adjust his diet and exercise, nor how to…