To tackle America’s gun problem, a growing number of states are using Medicaid dollars to pay for community-based programs intended to stop shootings. The idea is to boost resources for violence prevention programs, which have been overwhelmed in some cities by a spike in violent crime since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
An infusion of reliable federal funding, advocates say, could allow these nonprofits to expand their reach to more residents most at risk of being shot — or of shooting someone.
So far, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, New York, and Oregon have passed laws approving the use of Medicaid money for gun violence prevention, said Kyle Fischer, policy and advocacy director for The Health Alliance for Violence Intervention, which has lobbied for the federal and state Medicaid policy changes allowing this spending. More states are expected to follow.
“These are concrete things that we can do that avoid the debates around the Second Amendment,” Fischer said.
With gun control legislation stalled in Congress, the Biden administration has opened up federal Medicaid dollars to violence prevention as one of the ways states and cities can combat firearm violence. President Joe Biden announced the novel approach in April 2021, and now the money is starting to flow to interested states.
But the process to unlock the funding has been lengthy, and it’s unclear how much money will ultimately be spent on these programs. Because Medicaid, which provides health care for low-income and disabled residents, is a state-federal program, states must also approve spending the money on violence prevention.
In Illinois, which two years ago became one of the first states to approve Medicaid spending for violence prevention, Chicago CRED hopes to get approval for its program this spring. Arne Duncan, the former U.S. education secretary who leads the violence prevention group, said getting paid by…
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