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More Americans See
Non-Medical Care as Cost Saver
The above headline comes from a feature article in the
January 6, 2005 issue of Investors Business Daily. The
article starts off by stating that many consumers
traditionally used non-medical forms of healthcare, they
termed alternative care, when dissatisfied with
traditional medical care. However, they note that more
people are choosing non-medical forms of health care
because of the cost savings.
According to a survey released in December 2004 from the
Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC), about 6
million Americans turned to, what they called
“complementary and alternative medicine”, known as CAM,
to treat conditions such as chronic pain and depression
because conventional medicine was too pricey. The
article noted that the 6 million represented about 13%
of all those who used non-medical care, did so mainly
for the cost savings.
Health System Change (HSC) health researcher Ha Tu
commented, “With health-care costs definitely continuing
to outpace inflation and wage growth, more and more
people will find conventional medicine unaffordable.” He
continued, “We'll find the 6 million number growing and
more people turning to CAM because they see it as an
inexpensive alternative.”
The study found that those using non-medical care
because of cost concerns were four times as likely to be
uninsured as those not influenced by price. They also
noted that these people are more likely to be in the
lower income ranges. However, the story did note that
the use of non-medical care is growing anyway among all
users.
Last year they estimated that consumers spent $54
billion on non-medical care. HSC research director
Patrick Rea, further explained that $54 billion, $34
billion went to all types of alternative services such
as chiropractic, naturopathy, osteopathy and massage
therapy, up from $25.5 billion in 1999.
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