It’s no surprise that Americans spend an exorbitant amount of money on healthcare each year. It’s also no surprise that lower back and neck pain is higher on that spending list because of how many people utilize technology each day. Your back and your neck get a large brunt of the strain from everyday happenings.
Right under lower back and neck pain is limb and joint pain, as well as other musculoskeletal disorders. In 2016 about $380 billion was spent on all of these issues combined. For health care in total, there are about $3.1 trillion spent. This equals out to about $9,655 per person. It was only about $5,259 per person or $1.4 trillion in total in 1996. For that total in 2016, there are about 154 conditions to make up that $380 billion. Low back and neck pain were at the highest at $134.5 billion. Following that, with $111.2 billion is diabetes, ischemic heart disease with $89.3 billion, and falls for $87.4 billion.
When it comes to health care, you also have to take into consideration private and public insurance. These totals are:
- Low back & neck pain
- $76.9 billion for private
- $45.2 billion for paid
- $12.3 billion out-of-pocket
- Other musculoskeletal disorders
- $73.3 billion for private
- $46.9 billion for paid
- $9.7 billion out-of-pocket
- Diabetes
- $49.1 billion for private
- $55.4 billion for public
- $6.7 billion out-of-pocket
- Ischemic Heart Disease
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- $37.9 billion for private
- $48.2 billion for public
- $3.2 out-of-pocket
- Falls
- $34.8 billion for private
- $40.7 billion for public
- $11.9 billion for out-of-pocket
On top of that, there was a total of $336.0 billion spent on prescription pharmaceuticals. About 45.5% of that was paid with private insurance, while 19.1% was paid by public insurance.