Cost of U.S. Gun Injuries Totaled Up

An American public health study reported that the cost of treating people in the United States with gun injuries has been totaled up. Americans paid more than $6.6 billion over eight years to pay for the treatment of victims of gun violence. At least 42% of that amount was paid for by U.S. taxpayers.

The study was authored by the American Journal of Public Health. surprisingly, that large sum does not include the cost for emergency room visits by gunshot victims. It also does not include readmission to the hospital to treat anything that developed after the initial treatment. Furthermore, this $6.6 billion figure does not include rehabilitation or the cost of ongoing disability. These are large numbers and are kind of hard to believe to be honest.

Medicaid covers 45% of hospital bills for gun shot victims. The Republican’s attempts to reform the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) has called for reductions to Medicaid. The Republican plan would also cut payments to hospitals that cover care for uninsured patients, according to an article in the LA Times. Uninsured patient care contributed about 24% of the total to that figure. Until this study was released, the most recent estimate of the cost of firearm injuries went only through 1997 and used hospital data from only two states.

In 2014 33,700 people died of gunshot wounds but an additional 81,000 people were treated for gunshot injuries that they survived. The study’s authors say that they added up hospital bills of 267,265 patients across the country who were injured by guns between the years of 2006 and 2014. The proportions are interesting too.

• Most of the treated patients were male.
• About 43% of the victims were in the Southern United States
• The proportion of uninsured patients is also highest in the Southern United States
• 30% of gunshot victims who were treated in hospitals were insured by Medicaid

The study’s co-author, Sarabeth Spitzer, a Stanford University student, said she hopes more research into gun injuries will help to reduce the number of injuries and the vast cost to public health.