Health care cost and chiropractic

Let's face it; there are very few people who are going to call our health care system cost effective. Health care can be very expensive, often times leaving people trying to "wait out" their problems in exchange for heading to their local doctor's office.

One of the most classic cases of "waiting it out" can be found with back pain. In the United States alone, costs associated with back pain are estimated to reach an astonishing $48 billion dollars this year. At any given time, it is found that 80 percent of Americans suffer some form of back pain (October 2005, Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics). Many people will try to live with that pain until it becomes too excruciating or debilitating to wait any longer. There is something dreadfully wrong with this picture.

There is a more cost effective method for reducing or relieving back pain all together and its name is chiropractic. Take a look at this study:

• A study in the October 11, 2004 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine reports that low back pain patients with chiropractic coverage in their insurance plan needed less surgery and fewer X-rays than patients on the same insurance plan without chiropractic coverage.

• In the largest study of its type, four years of back pain claims were examined. Seven hundred thousand insured patients with chiropractic coverage were compared with 1 million insured members without chiropractic coverage. Other than the chiropractic coverage, both groups of patients were on the same insurance plan.

By comparing the two groups, the study found that:

• Chiropractic care cut the overall cost of back pain care by 28 percent.

• Chiropractic care reduced the cost of X-rays and MRIs by 37 percent.

• Chiropractic care reduced back pain patient hospitalizations by 41 percent.

• Chiropractic care reduced the number of back surgeries by 32 percent.

n Dr. Douglas Metz, chief health services officer at American Specialty Health, the insurer that sponsored the study said, "No matter how we perform the analysis - whether we look at total costs to the health plan, at lower back pain care, at musculoskeletal care - in each data set, the population covered for chiropractic had a lower overall cost to the health plan than the population without access to chiropractic benefits."

• Although this study did not examine patient satisfaction, Metz says that other company studies show that 95 percent of chiropractic patients are satisfied with the care they receive.

In a time when health care costs are continuously on the rise, doesn't it make sense to go with the option that reduces your overall costs while providing sound results?

Chiropractic care is a safe, effective alternative to medications and surgeries. Time and time again it is shown to provide lasting relief from back pain without the complications that can arise with more invasive methods. On top of the results, chiropractic can reduce your overall health care costs, saving you money. Who doesn't want to save money on health care?

To find out more information about chiropractic, give us a call at (208) 762-1414. You can find us on the web at www.CDAHealth.com or on Facebook and Twitter by searching "Spoelstra Family Chiropractic."