NCJ Number
151186
Date Published
1993
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This testimony before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee addresses injury's share of medical spending, the medical costs of violence, costs of injuries for employers, and the medical savings achievable through injury prevention.
Abstract
Injury is the leading cause of death from ages 1 to 45 and the third leading cause of death overall. Injury is also the source of most medical spending from ages 5 to 50. In 1992, $70 billion of the $522 billion spent on medical care was occasioned by injuries. In this same year, medical spending on firearm deaths and injuries was approximately $1.9 to $2.7 billion. Wage losses were perhaps $20 to $25 billion more, and quality-of-life losses three times that. Taxing arms and ammunition sufficiently to recoup their societal costs could raise considerable revenue. Recent research suggests that if taxation reduced gun sales, it also would reduce the violence. Violence also creates large mental health care costs. Alcohol taxes should be increased. Drunk driving is a violent crime because it is an illegal act that maims and kills. This crime costs almost $7 billion for medical services. Injury constitutes 19 percent of employer health care bills and 48 percent of employers' sick leave and disability payments. Laws and actions that prevent injuries and deaths save money as well as lives. The prevention of violence has many promising approaches, including home visits to prevent child abuse and get guns out of homes. Taxation can reduce health care costs by deterring drinking and violence while helping to finance health care. 2 exhibits and 19 references