Health Affairs published a study in 2017 that estimated that the costs associated with emergency room visits and inpatient care for firearm-related violence totaled $2.8 billion in hospital charges. When including the costs of rehabilitation, repeat admissions, and lost work, a report by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimated that about $46 billion are lost due to firearm-related injuries.
“The financial consequences of gun violence are particularly relevant today given the proposed changes to federal health care policy. Victims of firearm-related violence are more likely to be members of minority groups, low-income, and uninsured—all subgroups that have benefited from recent Medicaid expansions under the Affordable Care Act,” wrote Health Affairs. “If proposed budget cuts to Medicaid were passed into law, these patients would likely lose insurance coverage and would either fail to receive the life-saving care they need or would incur catastrophic out-of-pocket expenses. This would also increase the proportion of uncompensated care for hospitals and the health care system, resulting in recovery of these costs via higher premiums and higher bills for all patients, and through the use of governmental funds.”
To address these and other violence-related issues the peer-reviewed journal Violence and Gender, published by GEN publisher Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., will launch the first Annual Summit on Gun-Violence Research and Policy. The invitation-only summit, chaired by Editor-in-Chief Mary Ellen O’Toole, PhD, will be hosted by the journal and held in Washington, DC in May.
With the agreement reached by Congress that would allow CDC and NIH to fund gun-violence research for the first time in more than 20 years, the journal is poised to showcase this research so that policy will be guided by solid scientific evidence, according to O’Toole. Approximately 40,000 people die from gun violence in the United States each year, constituting an urgent public health crisis.
For more information contact Kathryn Ryan, 914-740-2100, [email protected]
