YOUR VIEW: Coalition Believes Cessation Programs Should be Covered by Medicaid

Editor, the Auburn Plainsman

According to a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control, Medicaid expenditures attributable to smoking total nearly 22 billion dollars annually, representing 11 percent of all Medicaid expenditures. In 2007, approximately 33% of adult Medicaid enrollees smoked cigarettes, which is substantially higher than the 19.8 percent rate of the general population. Because the smoking prevalence among Medicaid clients is higher than the rest of the U.S. population, they are disproportionately affected by tobacco-related diseases and disability.

Currently, 22.1 percent of Alabama's adults are smokers, or about 782,300 people. These numbers are disturbing because Alabama's annual health care costs directly caused by smoking are $1.49 billion with some $238 million of those expenses covered by the state's Medicaid program.

Alabama has an opportunity to reduce the health care costs by offering tobacco cessation coverage to Medicaid recipients. We encourage Alabama's legislators to provide adequate resources to fund tobacco cessation coverage for Medicaid clients.

According to the U.S. Clinical Guidelines for Treating Tobacco Dependence, FDA-approved pharmacotherapy combined with counseling is highly cost-effective and cost-saving. Many of Medicaid's tobacco users in Alabama would quit if they had access to cessation services. Providing cessation coverage to Alabama's Medicaid recipients will save lives and money.

Any Alabamian who is ready to quit tobacco should consider a tobacco cessation program. The good news is that if you get help, you're twice as likely to quit tobacco for good.

Marc T. Riker,

chairman, Coalition for Tobacco Free Alabama