For every dollar spent on over-the-counter medicines, the U.S. health care system saves $6 to $7—providing $102 billion in value each year, the Consumer Healthcare Products Association finds.

Booz & Co. surveyed 3,200 consumers for the study, which is the first to measure the aggregate cost savings of OTC medicines as used for the seven most common self-treatable conditions in the United States.

Some 240 million people rely on OTC medicines for symptomatic relief; the study evaluated how consumers would treat these seven conditions if they did not have access to OTC medicines. The total value equates to the total direct savings from avoided clinical visits and diagnostic testing ($77 billion) and use of less costly OTC medicines, rather than more costly prescriptions ($25 billion).