US Taxpayers care for gun violence victims

According to a report from the Urban Institute released Friday, US taxpayers are spending hundreds of millions of dollars each year to care for the victims of gun violence.

According to an analysis of hospital and insurance data by researchers at the nonpartisan think tank, about 80 percent of the cost of treating victims of gun violence in 2010 was borne in part by taxpayers.
That means taxpayers paid for victims’ care either through government programs like Medicaid or through publicly-funded programs that subsidize hospital care for those who don’t have insurance and can’t afford to pay.
The report’s author, Embry Howell, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute said, “The victims are concentrated among young, poor males. This is the population we’re talking about and their costs are very high. It’s one group that is heavily uninsured.”
Hospitals in the U.S. spent $630 million in 2010 treating the victims of gun violence and public funds provided most of that money. The Medicaid costs of gun violence alone that year amounted to approximately $327 million.
Notably, the report found that the average cost of a hospital visit for a gun violence victim is $14,000 more than that of the average hospital stay, due to the severity of the injuries often involved.