Health care costs
A 14-year study of health insurance data retrospectively assessed government payments to physicians in Quebec for treating 1418 patients who learnt TM and compared to 1418 who were randomly selected from health insurance enrollees of the same age, sex, and region. Before starting meditation, the yearly rate of increase in payments between groups was not significantly different (p > .17). After commencing meditation, the TM group's mean payments declined 1% to 2% annually. The comparison group's payments increased up to 11.73% annually over 6 years. There was a 13.78% mean annual difference (p = .0017). The results indicate that the TM technique reduced payments to physicians between 5% and 13% annually relative to comparison subjects over 6 years. American Journal of Health Promotion 2000;14(5):284-91.