Gun violence costs healthcare $1B per year: 9 stats

Each year, firearm-related injuries lead to roughly 30,000 inpatient hospital stays and 50,000 emergency room visits, which generates more than $1 billion in medical costs, an Urban Institute report found.

Firearm injuries cost an average of $6,400 per patient in initial costs and often leave victims with medical bills that increase $2,495 per person per month in the year following the injury. 

Here are six more stats to know:

1. Medicaid and other public insurance programs cover most firearm-related injury costs.
2. In 2020 alone, deaths from gun-related injuries cost $290 million.
3. Survivors are more likely to develop mental health conditions and substance use disorders.
4. Women are significantly more likely to be killed by a firearm in the U.S. than other high-income countries.
5. Of people admitted to hospitals for firearm injuries, 52 percent are Black, 29 percent are white and 14 percent are Hispanic.
6. The American South has the largest share of inpatient hospital stays and highest percentage of overall hospital costs for firearm injuries of any region.