As medical costs were only 2.9% of the total economic cost of reported suicides and suicidal attempts in 2013, the cost of strengthening these linkages would be relatively modest. From our key informant interviews, we project that implementing best practices around these linkages for every suicidal attempt might double the cost of medical care. With adjustment for under‐reporting, this would add up to $2.7 billion in additional medical costs in 2013 dollars. Based on past research, The Research Prioritization Task Force (RPTF) estimated that the number of suicides could be reduced by 20% through full successful implementation of five policies: providing brief psychotherapy treatments in emergency care, parity coverage for mental health care, adding a car safety feature, improving firearm safety, and implementing a school‐based prevention program (Research Prioritization Task Force [RPTF], 2014, p. 7). The RPTF estimated that the first policy alone would reduce suicides among persons aged 18–64 by 8%. (RPTF, 2014, p. 32). We projected that psychotherapeutic and other linkage interventions across the age spectrum would lower overall suicides by 10%. The resulting impact would represent a
