New options for health care policy and health status insurance: citizens as customers.

Health education and health literacy programs have implications on health care policy and health care status insurance. There are many benefits of a transition from disease management to a health care system, which includes priorities in prediction, prevention, and health education. Health care and disease management could best be implemented by multiple-tier, market-oriented models of universal coverage allowing for competition among health status insurers and educational, pharmaceutical, nursing, and other health service providers. Promotion of health literacy will allow citizens to become educated customers and consumers of health care services. Internationally, health literacy might narrow the gap between economically richer and poorer countries.