Skepticism, Science & Pseudoscience

HuckleB

(35,773 posts) Wed Jun 22, 2016, 05:42 PM Jun 2016

Americans Spend $30 Billion a Year on Alternative Medicine [View all]

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/americans-spend-30-billion-year-alternative-medicine-n596976

"Americans seem to believe in alternative medicine, shelling out more than $30 billion in 2012 alone for treatments ranging from acupuncture to homeopathy, federal researchers reported on Wednesday.

They found that 59 million Americans paid for some sort of alternative or complementary treatment in 2012 — an average of $500 per person. That's even though there is little evidence some of these approaches work.

"Substantial numbers of Americans spent billions of dollars out of pocket on these approaches, an indication that users believe enough in the value of these approaches to pay for them," the team at the National Center for Health Statistics reported.

"These expenditures, although a small fraction of total health care spending in the U.S., constitute a substantial part of out-of-pocket health care costs and are comparable to out-of-pocket costs for conventional physician services and prescription drug use."

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But, you know, it's no big deal.

7 replies

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Highlight:

Americans Spend $30 Billion a Year on Alternative Medicine [View all] HuckleB Jun 2016 OP

When Big Pharma makes a profit, it's a pure evil Orrex Jun 2016 #1

Broad-brushing it a bit, aren't you? astral Dec 2016 #2

Regulations are definitely needed in this area. HubbleSN Aug 2017 #3

Is that all? PoindexterOglethorpe Sep 2017 #4

This part is interesting: progressoid Sep 2017 #5

From someone who has used Natural since the 1960s sigpooie Dec 2018 #6

You know what they call alternative medicine that's actually proven to work? Ron Obvious Dec 2018 #7