CONTENT WARNING: This article references suicide. Please take caution when reading. If you need mental health support, please consult this page for resources.
Key takeaways
- UNC researchers found that firearm suicide rates among men rose from 2000 to 2023 in both Medicaid expansion and non-expansion states, with Black men seeing the largest increases.
- Medicaid expansion showed a measurable protective effect for only one group: white men ages 35 to 49.
- States that combined Medicaid expansion with gun purchase waiting periods had the lowest firearm suicide rates; states with neither had the highest.
From better access to health care to lower financial barriers to treatment, the benefits of Medicaid expansion have been well documented: reduced mortality rates for recipients, improved economies in expansion states and more people getting access to treatment for opioid use disorder.
One thing, though, has not improved consistently in states that opened the government-funded health insurance coverage to more people under the Affordable Care Act: the firearm suicide rate among men…