When Ashtin Gamblin remembers the night he was shot nine times, he can see himself lying in an ambulance wondering if he could afford the money.
“That’s how the American health care system works,” she told ABC News. “I just got shot, so I’m worried about how I’ll pay for the ambulance.”
Gamblin worked at the front door of Club Q, a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, where five people were killed and dozens injured in a November attack. A bullet penetrated Gamblin’s arm and chest and he was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery, requiring six days of hospitalization.
After returning home, Gamblin received a letter stating that medical bills totaled $300,000 and were not covered by private insurance.
Gamblin is one of the hundreds injured in mass shootings each year. As of May, there have been 184 mass shootings in the country this year, killing 248 people and injuring 744, according to reports. Gun Violence Archives.
Although data on the cost of injuries related to mass shootings are limited, the medical costs associated with gun violence total billions of dollars each year, ultimately paid for by national taxpayers and employers. It uses public and private insurance, an expert told ABC News.
Patrick Carter, a professor of emergency medicine at the University of Michigan and co-director of the Firearms Injury Prevention Institute, told ABC News, “Not only is the human toll from these types of injuries enormous, but so is the economic toll.”
According to one report, treatment in the first year after a gun attack increases survivors’ medical costs by an average of $30,000, four times what a particular individual would normally incur in a year. It says. study It was announced last year by Zirui Song and a group of colleagues from Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.
Considering the roughly 85,000 gun violence victims each year, the study found that the additional cost of primary care totals $2.5 billion.
“These are costs that society has to bear,” Song told ABC News.
Ninety-six percent of the additional medical costs come from public insurance programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, other insurance programs such as workplace protection, and private insurance provided by employers, Song said, with the remaining 4 percent covered. pointed out that Pocket money was paid by victims who had no insurance or chose to cover their own medical expenses.
From 2010 to 2022, Medicare and Medicaid covered at least 70% of the initial hospitalization costs for gun violence victims in New York City, according to the report. study It was announced in December by Gina Moreno, senior research analyst at John Jay College’s Center for Research Assessment.
Medicare and Medicaid are funded by the federal government, so the costs are borne by taxpayers across the country, Moreno told ABC News.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re from small town Utah or not, you’re a taxpayer helping people injured in Queens,” Moreno said.
On November 26, 2022 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Club Q witnesses a growing monument and a steady stream of mourners.
SOPA image/LightRocket (via Getty Images)
But experts say these findings are only part of the cost, as they exclude indirect effects such as long-term treatment, lost income and lost resources needed to feed a family. It says.
In an effort to account for the broader costs, advocacy group Everytown said: report Last year, gun violence cost the country $557 billion each year, or about 2.6% of the country’s gross domestic product. About $12.6 billion is paid out by taxpayers, according to the group.
According to the group, the study incorporates both short- and long-term health care costs, as well as the financial resources needed for the criminal justice system and the monetary equivalent of pain and suffering.
“Whether or not you have a firearm injury, the long-term effects are lifelong,” Carter said. “They apply primarily to our health insurance scheme.”
The health effects of mass shootings also affect families. Song and his colleagues found a 12 percent increase in mental health problems in the victims’ families in the year after the gun injury.
“These firearms have wide-ranging ramifications for families, employers and society,” Song said. “This will impress everyone.”
After the attack at Club Q, Gamblin said he was seeing a doctor five days a week. Currently, she receives 20 hours of home care and psychiatric treatment a week because of her post-traumatic stress disorder, she added.
She estimates the total medical costs since the raid have exceeded $1 million. Ultimately, she received compensation from workers’ compensation insurance and private insurance, but the process cost her a lot of money, she said.
“In a perfect world, I wouldn’t mind paying for this,” she said. “I didn’t ask for this.”
Chiara Alfonseca of ABC News contributed reporting.
