Firearm assaults leave a hefty tab on hospitals and taxpayers.
The horrific massacre at an Orlando gay club not only left 49 people dead and 53 injured. It has left deep emotional scars on survivors, victims’ families, the LGBTQ community, and other Orlando residents. (You can find out how to help the Orlando victims here).
But America’s epidemic of mass shootings also has immediate and tangible costs to the health care system and taxpayers. According to an analysis of 2010 data by the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, the price tag was $669 million in direct hospital costs for just that year and $174 billion in larger societal costs, which includes disability, effects on employment, and other longer-term factors. Another analysis, by Ted Miller of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, found the combined direct costs and indirect costs of gun violence hit $229 billion in 2012, Mother Jones reported. (The bulk of that was due to indirect costs such as lost wages and survivors’ diminished quality of life.)
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