Engaging and Empowering Consumers
The U.S. healthcare system continues its transformation to focus more on the wants and needs of consumers. This section focuses on health management benefits and programs as well as tools and information designed to help manage and maintain the health of consumers.
Consumers are taking more responsibility and accountability for their healthcare choices. To do this successfully, they want to be more actively involved and more informed so that they can make better healthcare choices for themselves and their families. They also want more helpful information tools, including sophisticated Internet resources tailored to their individual needs.
Consumer engagement and empowerment can have a major impact on healthcare costs. More informed and more educated healthcare consumers will better understand the value of healthy lifestyles.
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Consumers are looking for information to aid them in making healthcare decisions. |
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"Although seven of every ten deaths among Americans are due to chronic diseases, the underlying causes of these deaths are often risk factors that can be successfully modified years before they ultimately contribute to illness and death. Three such factors – tobacco use, poor nutrition, and lack of physical activity – are major contributors to the nation’s leading killers. Each year 430,000 deaths (about 20 percent of all deaths) are linked to tobacco use, which causes not only lung cancer and emphysema but also one-fifth of all cardiovascular disease deaths. Obesity is a
major contributor to heart disease, diabetes, arthritis and some types of cancer. Recent estimates suggest that obesity is associated with 300,000 deaths annually, second only to tobacco-related deaths."
See slide on left side for an example of tobacco-related deaths.
– Testimony of Julie L. Gerberding, M.D., M.P.H.
Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Before the Committee on Appropriations,
Subcommittee on Labor,
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
Education and Related Agencies
of the United States Senate
February 17, 2003 | |
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Engaging and Empowering Consumers
- Average Healthcare Expenditure as Percent of Before-Tax Income, 2004
- Percent of Consumers Searching for Healthcare Information, 2005
- Consumers’ Sources of Health Information, 2004
- Percent of Internet Users Accessing Health Information on the Web, 2002 and 2006
- Percent of Consumers Utilizing Health Plans’ Online Features, 2005
- Percent of Consumers Indicating Health Plan Online Decision Support Tools are Useful in Helping Manage Healthcare, 2005
- Percent of Households Tracking Health and Medical Information, 2005
- Online Health Research Among Non PHR- and PHR-Keepers, 2005
- Cost of Chronic Disease
- Number of Persons Receiving Medical Treatment for Selected Diseases, 1987 and 2002
- Private Insurance Spending for Selected Diseases, 1987 and 2002
- Cigarette Smoking in the U.S., 1979-2003
- Cigarette Smoking Among High School Students in the U.S., 1991-2003
- Smoking: Cost in Dollars and Lives, Prevalence and Associated Diseases
- Annual Cost of Second Hand Smoke
- Cost of Alcohol and Drug Abuse
- Individuals Aged 20-74, by Weight Status, 1960-2002
- Children and Adolescents Considered Overweight, by Age Group, 1971-2002
- Overweight Conditions and Obesity
- Aggregate Medical Spending Attributable to Being Overweight and Obesity, by Source of Funds, 1998
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