Preventing 3 million premature deaths and helping 5 million smokers quit: a national action plan for tobacco cessation. (57/368)

In August 2002, the Subcommittee on Cessation of the Interagency Committee on Smoking and Health (ICSH) was charged with developing recommendations to substantially increase rates of tobacco cessation in the United States. The subcommittee's report, A National Action Plan for Tobacco Cessation, outlines 10 recommendations for reducing premature morbidity and mortality by helping millions of Americans stop using tobacco. The plan includes both evidence-based, population-wide strategies designed to promote cessation (e.g., a national quitline network) and a Smokers' Health Fund to finance the programs (through a 2 US dollar per pack excise tax increase). The subcommittee report was presented to the ICSH (February 11, 2003), which unanimously endorsed sending it to Secretary Thompson for his consideration. In this article, we summarize the national action plan.  (+info)

Poor smokers, poor quitters, and cigarette tax regressivity. (58/368)

The traditional view that excise taxes are regressive has been challenged. I document the history of the term regressive tax, show that traditional definitions have always found cigarette taxes to be regressive, and illustrate the implications of the greater price responsiveness observed among the poor. I explain the different definitions of tax burden: accounting, welfare-based willingness to pay, and welfare-based time inconsistent. Progressivity (equity across income groups) is sensitive to the way in which tax burden is assessed. Analysis of horizontal equity (fairness within a given income group) shows that cigarette taxes heavily burden poor smokers who do not quit, no matter how tax burden is assessed.  (+info)

Popular Medicaid programs do battle with state budget pressures: perspectives from twelve states. (59/368)

Many are concerned that growth of state Medicaid and State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) spending, along with limited political clout among beneficiaries, make these programs extremely vulnerable in periods of serious state budget constraints. But observations based on Community Tracking Study site visits show that states have thus far largely avoided major cuts that would seriously harm beneficiaries' access, primarily because programs have more support among coalitions of public officials, health care providers, and local advocates than commonly assumed. However, the limits to this surprising level of support are exemplified by decisions in many states to shelve some planned future expansions indefinitely.  (+info)

How much downside? Quantifying the relative harm from tobacco taxation. (60/368)

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the loss of life expectancy attributable to tobacco taxation (via financial hardship and flow-on health effect) in New Zealand. DESIGN: Data were used on the gradients in life expectancy and smoking by neighbourhood socioeconomic deprivation and survey data on tobacco expenditure. Three estimates were modelled of the percentage of the crude association of neighbourhood deprivation with life expectancy that might be mediated via financial hardship: 100%, 50%, and 25% (best estimate). From this information the impact of tobacco taxation on life expectancy was estimated. MAIN RESULTS: For the total population, the estimated loss of life expectancy due to tobacco tax ranged from 0.005 years to 0.027 years. For people living in the most deprived 30% of neighbourhoods, the range was 0.009 to 0.044 years (that is, 3 to 16 days of lost life expectancy). For the total population the loss of life expectancy attributable to tobacco tax ranged from 119 to 460 times less than that attributable to deprivation. The loss of life expectancy attributable to tobacco tax was 42 to 257 times less than that attributable to smoking. CONCLUSIONS: The estimated harm to life expectancy from tobacco taxation (via financial hardship) is orders of magnitude smaller than the harm from smoking. Although the analyses involve a number of simplistic assumptions, this conclusion is likely to be robust. Policy makers should be reassured that tobacco taxation is likely to be achieving far more benefit than harm in the general population and in socioeconomically deprived populations.  (+info)

The obesity epidemic: too much food for thought? (61/368)

Traditional treatment strategies and public health interventions aimed at reducing the incidence of obesity are proving inadequate at controlling the global epidemic of this condition. The main focus of any intervention should be on preventing small excesses of weight, which lead to large weight gain over time, as once a large amount of excess weight is gained, it is very difficult to lose. The only effective approach is for governments to implement radical policy change, to regulate food consumption and control the food industry in a similar way to that of the tobacco industry, by banning the advertising of selected produce, taxing certain foods, and rationing the purchase of others.  (+info)

Handmade cigarettes: it's the tube that counts. (62/368)

Thirty-one Canadian brands of fine-cut tobaccos for roll-your-own cigarettes (RYOs) were evaluated under standard conditions using mandated tube and filter combinations. Results indicate no evidence of a significant difference in the amounts of tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide produced by the 31 brands. In addition, the data emphasize that it is primarily the tube and filter combination that determines delivery of toxic constituents.  (+info)

The effect of state cigarette tax increases on cigarette sales, 1955 to 1988. (63/368)

We evaluated the effect of state cigarette tax increases on cigarette sales in the 50 states for the years 1955 to 1988. State cigarette tax increases were associated with an average decline in cigarette consumption of three cigarette packs per capita (about 2.4%). Larger tax increases were associated with larger declines in consumption. Raising state cigarette taxes appears to be an effective public health intervention that can reduce cigarette consumption and its associated health consequences.  (+info)

Health care fraud and abuse data collection program: technical revisions to Healthcare Integrity and Protection Data Bank data collection activities. Final rule. (64/368)

The rule finalizes technical changes to the Healthcare Integrity and Protection Data Bank (HIPDB) data collection reporting requirements by clarifying the types of personal numeric identifiers that may be reported to the data bank in connection with adverse actions. The rule clarifies that in lieu of a Social Security Number (SSN), an individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN) may be reported to the data bank when, in those limited situations, an individual does not have an SSN.  (+info)