A new study done at Arizona State University has, for the first time, quantified the health-care cost of women in Arizona who experienced trauma as children, pegging the amount at $260 million for 2019.
The research, done by the Morrison Institute for Public Policy, showed that exposure to three or more “adverse childhood experiences,” or ACEs, such as drug abuse or violence in their homes, was associated with $260 million in Medicaid spending – about 16% of the total for 2019.
The work is important because researchers have long known about the poor health outcomes associated with adverse childhood experiences, but policymakers typically need to see hard numbers on cost benefits before making changes.
“The purpose of the study is to determine the association between ACEs in Arizona and health outcomes later in life and the cost of these outcomes,” said Erica Quintana, senior policy analyst at the Morrison Institute and one of the authors of the report, which is titled “Cost of Adverse Childhood Experiences in Arizona.”
“I hope this report gives people some numbers and language to talk about ACEs in terms of cost, and that we can facilitate discussion on how preventing ACEs or reducing the number of ACEs might save money and suffering in terms of health care.”
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