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Shooting Costs
Amid Debate Over Health Insurance Coverage, Brady Report Highlights Dangers of Congressional Health Care Proposal to Gun Violence Survivors and Taxpayers
Executive Summary
The mass shooting targeting lawmakers in broad daylight on a baseball field in Alexandria shocked Americans. As the country reeled from news of House Majority Leader Steve Scalise's uncertain prognosis after a gunshot wound to the hip, Congress continued its debate on repealing critical components of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that literally mean the difference between life and death for victims of shootings. An estimated 22 million people will lose their insurance under the Republican healthcare plan being debated. Coverage guarantees under the ACA but missing from the new proposal would leave many severely-wounded gunshot victims without the critical treatment necessary for a full recovery—recovery that in many cases costs in the range of hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars per patient
The cost of initial hospitalizations alone for victims of gunshots is more than $700 million annually. Average initial hospitalization cost per patient is approximately $24,000-32,000. For patients with complications, such as Rep. Scalise, the costs of treatment and recovery are many times that.
Initial hospitalizations and follow up care are covered under the ACA through individual insurance coverage, which cannot discriminate based on preexisting conditions, nor increase in cost as a result of such conditions. They are also covered by the Medicaid and Medicare programs, which cover more than 40 percent of the costs associated with initial hospitalizations for gunshot wounds. (Medicaid covered $2.3 billion of the $6.6 billion in costs related to initial hospital stays for gunshot victims from 2006-2014, according to a 2017 study). But an estimated 15 million people will lose Medicaid coverage under the Republican plan.
The epidemic of gun violence should be treated as a public health threat and an issue of concern to all taxpayers, particularly in the context of the healthcare legislation now being debated. If Congress enacts this plan, the cost of much of this care will shift to taxpayers and consumers with private insurance. Emergency treatment centers will be forced to offset unpaid debts from uninsured patients previously covered by Medicare, Medicaid, or private insurance with higher sticker prices for paying patients, and through greater contributions from other taxpayer-funded programs at the local and state level, which will result in higher private insurance rates and higher taxes.
http://www.bradycampaign.org/shooting-costs
Executive Summary
The mass shooting targeting lawmakers in broad daylight on a baseball field in Alexandria shocked Americans. As the country reeled from news of House Majority Leader Steve Scalise's uncertain prognosis after a gunshot wound to the hip, Congress continued its debate on repealing critical components of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that literally mean the difference between life and death for victims of shootings. An estimated 22 million people will lose their insurance under the Republican healthcare plan being debated. Coverage guarantees under the ACA but missing from the new proposal would leave many severely-wounded gunshot victims without the critical treatment necessary for a full recovery—recovery that in many cases costs in the range of hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars per patient
The cost of initial hospitalizations alone for victims of gunshots is more than $700 million annually. Average initial hospitalization cost per patient is approximately $24,000-32,000. For patients with complications, such as Rep. Scalise, the costs of treatment and recovery are many times that.
Initial hospitalizations and follow up care are covered under the ACA through individual insurance coverage, which cannot discriminate based on preexisting conditions, nor increase in cost as a result of such conditions. They are also covered by the Medicaid and Medicare programs, which cover more than 40 percent of the costs associated with initial hospitalizations for gunshot wounds. (Medicaid covered $2.3 billion of the $6.6 billion in costs related to initial hospital stays for gunshot victims from 2006-2014, according to a 2017 study). But an estimated 15 million people will lose Medicaid coverage under the Republican plan.
The epidemic of gun violence should be treated as a public health threat and an issue of concern to all taxpayers, particularly in the context of the healthcare legislation now being debated. If Congress enacts this plan, the cost of much of this care will shift to taxpayers and consumers with private insurance. Emergency treatment centers will be forced to offset unpaid debts from uninsured patients previously covered by Medicare, Medicaid, or private insurance with higher sticker prices for paying patients, and through greater contributions from other taxpayer-funded programs at the local and state level, which will result in higher private insurance rates and higher taxes.
http://www.bradycampaign.org/shooting-costs
The gun violence epidemic affects ALL Americans -- morally, financially, and physically. The Second Amendment was never intended as a license for Americans to kill and maim other Americans, nor does it have anything at all to do with enforcing a political philosophy on our government or the public at large.
Guns have a place in our society: in the home, and being safely transported to and from the home to the range or the hunting ground. Carrying a gun in the public venue as a means to "stand-your-ground" against a possible aggressor has been proven to have the potential to cause more harm than good when rage and altercations escalate to murder. Rather than entering into an arms race with the criminal elements in our society, we should be disarming them through stringent laws and aggressive enforcement by legally armed, well-trained, professional law enforcement personnel.