FLORIDA — An investigative analysis published in 2026 by KFF Health News and The Trace revealed that uninsured gunshot victims in Florida receive shorter hospital stays and less follow-up care compared to insured patients. The analysis utilized state hospital billing data from 2018 to 2024.

The data, obtained from the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, covered more than 20,000 gunshot wound hospitalizations in Florida. Uninsured patients represented 25% of these hospitalizations, making them the largest single group treated for firearm injuries in the dataset. The analysis showed that uninsured gunshot victims had an average hospital stay of about six days. This duration was three-quarters the time spent by privately insured patients and less than half the average stay for patients covered by traditional Medicaid. Among the most severely injured patients, uninsured individuals stayed three fewer days on average than their insured counterparts.

Alea Bates was shot seven times in Tallahassee, Florida, in 2019 while working as an Uber Eats driver. She did not have health insurance at the time. Bates was treated at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare's main hospital, where surgeons removed bullets and fragments. Hospital records indicate no damage to her internal organs, but Bates was discharged four days after being shot. Bates said she was unable to get out of bed or walk without assistance after surgery.

Bates said she experienced intense pain radiating down her left leg, weakness in her knee, and a numbing sensation below it. She said the hospital did not perform additional X-rays, CTs, or MRIs to determine the cause of the numbness and that staff told her the numbness would eventually subside. Bates said doctors stated she was medically stable, and she was informed she could not be transferred to a rehabilitation hospital or skilled nursing facility due to her lack of health insurance. She said hospital staff implied they needed the bed for an insured patient. Bates incurred about $60,000 in medical bills from her hospital stay. "It's crazy that in this country somebody else can hurt you, and you have to pay for what they did to you," Bates said.

Nearly half of the gunshot wound patients in the analyzed data were Black. Approximately 25% of nonwhite gunshot wound patients were uninsured, compared to fewer than 20% of white gunshot wound patients. Arch Mainous, a University of Florida professor and vice chair for research in community health and family medicine, stated that financial incentives influence patient care in hospitals. "Ultimately there's a business aspect to it, whether the physician is thinking about it or not, whether the nurses think about it or not. But somebody is," Mainous said.

KFF Health News and The Trace requested interviews with administrators at nine large hospital systems in Florida, but none agreed to speak. Sarah Cannon, communications director at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare, also did not agree to an interview or address Bates' account of her care.