State of Union to Ignore Huge Unnecessary Drain
President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address will completely ignore a huge and totally unnecessary expense which, if corrected, could fund health care reform without any cuts in Medicare or any additional taxes, with tens of billions left over to reduce the deficit, says public interest law professor John Banzhaf.
Smoking costs the American economy almost $200 billion a year for totally unnecessary medical care costs under Medicare, Medicaid, veteran’s benefits, Indian benefits, and many other welfare programs, as well as in the costs of premature disability, lost productivity, and other factors. Nonsmokers are now forced to bear most of this cost in the form of higher taxes, and in inflated premiums for medical insurance, says Banzhaf of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH).
But, despite Obama’s zeal to slash health care costs, including legislative proposals to cut hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicare for the elderly, Obama will reportedly propose no new approaches to curbing America’s number one cause of unnecessary health care costs — one which by any measure exceeds the costs of frivolous medical malpractice law suits, inefficiencies from a lack of digital medical records, outdated policies for treating diseases, etc.
One simple step, proposed by Action on Smoking and Health, would have been to impose, as part of health care reform, a modest surcharge on health insurance premiums for smokers — just as smokers now pay more for life insurance, and, in an increasing number of situations (including in many states), for health insurance.
ASH showed how such a surcharge would slash health care costs by reducing the incidence of diseases caused or exacerbated by smoking; obviously a much more efficient way than simply improving the care for these diseases once they have already occurred. It would in addition substantially reduce the need to cut life-saving Medicare funding, or to tax comprehensive health plans, and is one of the few funding proposals favored by a majority of Americans.
Obama could also help to reduce this totally unnecessary subsidy nonsmokers are now forced to pay by other steps which likewise could be done at no cost and which could be implemented immediately. One would be to direct the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to use the power Congress just gave it to substantially reduce the level of nicotine in cigarettes to the point where the product could not easily sustain an addiction and prevent millions from quitting smoking.
Another useful step, says Prof. Banzhaf, would be for Obama to ask the U.S. Senate to ratify the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control — a world antismoking and nonsmokers’ rights treaty which the U.S. supported and signed, but has yet to ratify. A third measure might be to require, as a condition of receiving federal grants, that recipient institutions ban all tobacco use on their property, and provide effective smoking cessation assistance to employees.
“Smoking is the 800 pound gorilla in the health care debate which everyone is afraid of and unwilling to confront. Halving smoking — by making it much more expensive as well as very inconvenient — would pay for all health care reform without any need to cut Medicare or increase any taxes. It would go a long way towards insuring that the nonsmokers would not have to continue to subsidize this activity which many so strongly oppose.”
“A surcharge on smokers would, for the first time, force them to accept some personal responsibility for their choice, rather than requiring others to absorb these huge costs,” says Banzhaf, noting that President Obama, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and many conservative as well as liberal groups have argued that personal responsibility must become a major component of health care reform.”
Those who by their own choices impose huge and totally unnecessary expenses on the American public should bear at least some of those costs, argues ASH. For many of them, including the overwhelming majority who already wish to quit, it would be the first time that continuing to smoke would have real, direct, and immediate consequences — thereby providing the additional incentive many need to be successful, says ASH.
PROFESSOR JOHN F. BANZHAF III
Executive Director and Chief Counsel
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)
America’s First Antismoking Organization
2013 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20006, USA
(202) 659-4310 ** http://ash.org
