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According to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 60 million Americans spend over $30 billion out of pocket on complementary health approaches.
Complementary health approaches are medical and health care systems, practices, and products that originated outside of mainstream medicine. These include techniques performed by a practitioner (such as acupuncture, spinal manipulation, and massage therapy) and natural products (such as herbs, probiotics, and fish oil). Some approaches, including acupuncture and yoga, originated in Eastern countries such as China or India but are now used in Western countries as well.
According to research by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), Latinos have shown a particular affinity for yoga. Between 2007 and 2012 the number of Latinos participating in yoga nearly doubled from 2.7% in 2007 to 5.1% in 2012.
Data on about 45,000 participants were analyzed, including nearly 10,200 children age 4 to 17. Information about children was provided by an adult member of the household. The research found that about 59 million Americans over the age of 4 had at least one out-of-pocket expenditure related to a complementary health approach. The breakdown was 55.2 million adults and 4.1 million children.
The total out-of-pocket spending for complementary approaches was $30.2 billion—$28.3 billion for adults and $1.9 million for children. This figure represents 9.2% of all out-of-pocket spending that Americans had on healthcare and 1.1% of all total healthcare spending overall. The mean for out-of-pocket spending per person was $510. Overall, $12.8 billion was paid out-of-pocket on natural product supplements.
As family income goes up, it was found by the research, that out-of-pocket spending on complementary health approaches also went up; significantly in many cases. For example, the average user with an annual income of less than $25,000 spent $435; form family incomes of $100,000 or more, the cost was $590.
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By The Numbers
25.1
percent
of Latinos remain without health insurance coverage
