Do you understand your health care plan and all of the paperwork and procedures that go along with it? With all of the debate about health care, nobody seems to mention that the day-to-day reality of our system has become incredibly complex - another factor which probably drives up the overall cost. For example, have you ever tried to read your health care plan? Usually written by lawyers and insurance experts, the language is either confusing or unintelligible to most plan members, making it very difficult to know who or what is covered, under what conditions, and in what circumstances. This of course leads to additional questions for customer service representatives, disputes about payments, and frustration on all sides - all of which adds to the costs.

It's a pretty vicious circle. Unfortunately, the various health care proposals making their way through Congress don't seem to fully address the idea of making the system simpler as a key strategy for making it not only less expensive, but more effective. This is despite the fact that the U.S. government itself has been promoting the use of "plain language" in health care and other areas of government since the days of the Clinton administration.

But it doesn't have to be this way. Rhode Island, for example, has passed regulations that will require that all health insurance policies in the state, beginning in 2010, be written at an eighth-grade level, which is the average reading level for state residents. This is a response to the Rhode Island Health Commissioner's finding that many sections of current plans are written at graduate school level (and written poorly at that). According to Commission Counsel John Cogan Jr. (New York Times), this should make a significant difference in helping Rhode Island consumers get their claims paid, with much less churn and associated cost.

Of course if Rhode Island can make this happen there is no reason that the rest of the country can't do the same. It may however require each of us to start pushing back on insurance companies, state regulators, and members of Congress who (explicitly or implicitly) foster, encourage and allow this kind of confusion and complexity to characterize our health care plans. If we all start lobbying for simplicity in health care, perhaps we can make a difference.

Do you think simpler language is a good way to start reforming our health care system?

Ron Ashkenas is a managing partner of Robert H. Schaffer & Associates, a Stamford, Connecticut consulting firm and the author of the forthcoming book Simply Effective: How to Cut Through Complexity in Your Organization and Get Things Done (Harvard Business Press, December, 2009).