Americans spent $34 billion out of pocket in 2007 on “Complementary and alternative medicine”
Including everthing from chiropractic and acupuncture to glucosamine according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). National Health Statistics Report No. 18. Costs of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) and Frequency of Visits to CAM Practitioners: United States, 2007. (PHS) 2009-1250. July 30, 2009. DOWNLOAD PDF of CDC Report (279 KB)
Dr. Weiniger’s Datapoints:
>>$14.8 billion on “natural products+ – includes nutritional supplements (eg glucosamine and echinacea) but excludes vitamin and mineral supplements
>>Approx 354.2 million visits by 38 million people to CAM practitioners (3/4 of which are chiro,massage and body or motion based therapy).—–Out-of-pocket cost – $11.9 billion
>>Out-of-pocket spending for alt-health was 11% of all out-of-pocket health spending, a small fraction of our $2 trillion+ total health spending, most paid by insurance ( And the largest insurance payor is Medicare-SPW).
Graph from http://nccam.nih.gov/news/camstats/costs/costdatafs.htm
