Expanding Medicaid coverage did not reduce firearm suicide rates among most groups of American men, according to a new analysis that found a measurable protective effect in only one demographic.
The University of North Carolina-led study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, found that firearm suicide rates among men rose from 2000 to 2023 in both Medicaid expansion and non-expansion states, with Black men experiencing the largest increases. Expansion showed a protective effect only for white men ages 35 to 49, where it was associated with roughly 1.4 fewer firearm suicide deaths per 100,000 people.
