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While the pandemic has receded and homicide rates have dropped nationally, homicides haven’t gone down in some cities.

Americans, already armed to the hilt, rushed to buy more guns. That same year, police murdered George Floyd, a Black man, in Minneapolis, sparking nationwide protests and calls to cut police funding. In 2020, many cities around the country confronted a rise in shootings and homicides after officials responding to the pandemic shut down schools, businesses, and critical social services. “Having Medicaid start to be a player in this space and create those opportunities could be a game changer.” “We’re trying to build a public health infrastructure to combat gun violence,” Duncan said. education secretary who leads the violence prevention group, said getting paid by Medicaid will be worth the wait and that he hopes his state’s experience will make it more expeditious for others. 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.

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.

#Bill of particulars california free

Subscribe to KFF Health News' free Morning Briefing.īut the process to unlock the funding has been lengthy, and it’s unclear how much money will ultimately be spent on these programs. President Joe Biden announced the novel approach in April 2021, and now the money is starting to flow to interested states. 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. “These are concrete things that we can do that avoid the debates around the Second Amendment,” Fischer said. 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. 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.Īn 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. 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.