How we can save 42% of healthcare costs...RIGHT NOW!

Well I had a break in-between patients today and figured I had not added anything new for my Facebook followers.  So I looked at CNN money and saw a surprising article on how the average American family spends $19393 per year on healthcare.
How did we get to $19393?  Well considering the average family size in America is 2.59, that translates into $7487 per person.  I remember when we were at $4000 per person in 1999/2000.  So with inflation, I figure not too bad.
Wait!  That's real money.  Not to mention almost twice as much per capita as other countries.

The article continues to give us a breakdown as how much the employee vs. employer pays and how the dollars are spent.  This interesting part is, of $19,393 spent per year:

• 33% goes to Physicians or $6370 (numbers rounded to nearest dollar)
• 31% hospital in-patient costs or $6012
• 17% out-patient costs or $3297
• 15% pharmacy costs or $2909
• 4% Durable Medical Equipment/other costs or $776

Most people don't know about a couple of little known studies in the Chiropractic profession.  We call them the "AMI study".  In 1996 a HMO called Alternative Medicine, Inc. (AMI) eliminated the usual insurance "gatekeeper" method by restricting alternative therapies unless approved by a medical doctor.  The utilization findings where astonishing.  The utilization decreases ( leading to cost savings) were:

• 43 percent in hospital admissions per 1,000
• 58.4 percent in hospital days per 1,000
• 43.2 percent in outpatient surgeries and procedures
  per 1,000
• 51.8 percent in pharmaceutical costs

Three years later the study was done again and published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics (JMPT) in May 2007.  The results again show decreases of:

• 60.2 percent in hospital admissions per 1,000
• 59 percent in hospital days per 1,000
• 62 percent in outpatient surgeries and procedures per 1,000
• 85 percent in pharmaceutical costs

Let look at how this would influence healthcare dollars of $19,393 spent per family per year:

• 33% goes to Physicians or $6370
• 31% hospital in-patient costs or $6012  60% decrease = $2405. Saved $3607
• 17% out-patient costs or $3297  62% decrease=$1253. Saved $2044
• 15% pharmacy cost or $2909  85% decrease=$436. Saved $2473
• 4% Durable Medical Equip/other $776

Your total savings per year would be $8124 or 42%!  Let take a look at some other possible questions here.  Would my costs go up because I have to pay for Chiropractic care?  Doubt it, most likely you would trade-off the 33% going to the MD if not save even more.  If you have an 85% decrease in drug use, that would translate into some hypothetical decrease in the required visits to the MD's office to get the prescription.
Where the patients in this study happy seeing a Chiropractor?  Yes, Chiropractic care has the highest patient satisfaction rates  in the nation.
So why not save yourself $8000 or more per year and see a Chiropractor first?
http://money.cnn.com/2011/05/11/news/economy/healthcare_costs_family/index.htm?iid=EL
From Michigan Association of Chiropractors Journal Feb 2009
Your Grand Rapids Chiropractor