Cutting Health Care Costs With Chiropractic

Health care costs have been rising for several years. Expenditures in the United States on health care surpassed $2.3 trillion in 2008, more than three times the $714 billion spent in 1990, and over eight times the $253 billion spent in 1980. Controling this growth has become a major policy priority, as the government, employers, and consumers increasingly struggle to keep up with health care costs.  In 2008, U.S. health care spending was about $7,681 per resident and accounted for 16.2% of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP); this is among the highest of all industrialized countries.  Clearly, something needs to change.

One viable option to decrease health care costs is chiropractic.  Blue Cross/Blue Shield conducted a study from 1999 to 2005 that analyzed clinical and cost utilization data between primary health care physicians.  They studied 70,274 patients over a seven year period.  Those that exclusively used doctors of chiropractic as their primary health care physician demonstrated decreases of 60.2% in-hospital admissions, 59.0% hospital days, 62.0% outpatient surgeries and procedures and 85% pharmaceutical costs when compared with conventional medicine health care providers for the same health product in the same geography and time frame.

For more information on how chiropractic can minimize the need for medications and surgeries, visit our website at www.valleychiroassoc.com.