ensure that brain injury survivors have access to the same quality of rehabilitative care as Gabby Giffords received.

States and insurers should be required to provide more consistent and extended rehab services to brain injury (BI) survivors. According to the CDC, at least 1.7 million people suffer a TBI each year and up to 90,000 survive with long-term disabilities. Rehab services vary from state to state and insurer to insurer thus providing the BI survivor basically the luck of the draw in access to rehab services. The importance of these services has been underscored by their effect upon Gabby Giffords’ recovery. The DOD has recognized the need for these services by providing $150M to research effective therapies for veterans with TBI. While economic studies are limited, it only makes sense that it is in society’s best interest to help return a BI survivor to productivity rather than life-long care.