KY Smoking Cessation Efforts to be Recognized at NCSL Meeting

Jul 22nd, 2010

When it is implemented, the comprehensive Medicaid smoking cessation benefit funded this year will put Kentucky in an elite group of only six other states that offer such a comprehensive program. Smoking continues to take a heavy toll on the physical and fiscal health of our state and much more needs to be done to make significant progress. However, by making smoking cessation services available to Kentuckians on Medicaid, we have demonstrated that improving health by reducing smoking is a public policy priority.

As lawmakers from every state in the nation descend upon Louisville for the NCSL annual summit (July 25-29), they will be learning the best and most effective ways to, among other things, help balance budgets, protect the state’s citizens and figure out how their states will function in the new health care environments. The NCSL Health Committee will hold a special hearing on Medicaid smoking cessation (July 26 at 3:45 pm) to highlight the health and fiscal benefits such programs provide to states. Massachusetts, which implemented its highly successful program in 2006, will be cited as a proven example while our own host state of Kentucky will be recognized for funding a similar program in 2010.

More than half a million people in the U.S. are enrolled in state Medicaid programs and some of the highest rates of smoking are found within this segment of the population—36.6 percent smoke, compared to 22.6 percent of the general population. The habit not only costs these smokers their health, but it also costs the federal and state governments money. In 2004, tobacco-related healthcare costs for Medicaid enrollees averaged $607 million (large states spent much more – New York spent $5.4 billion). That is 11 percent of total average Medicaid expenditures – and billions of dollars that governments could have spent elsewhere.

Helping smokers enrolled in Medicaid quit smoking will save their lives and save states money. Fortunately there are several treatments that increase smokers’ chances of quitting for good. Nicotine replacement therapy, other medications, and counseling have all been recommended by the U.S. Health and Human Services as effective in helping smokers quit. Having insurance coverage of these treatments and providing them at low or no cost is especially important for people in these programs, as they are by definition low-income and less able to pay for treatments on their own.

Despite the high cost of smoking, Kentucky had been one of only a handful of states not offering Medicaid coverage for smoking cessation services. This status was reversed in 2010 when Governor Steve Beshear proposed funding Medicaid smoking cessation coverage as part of the biennial budget, and the General Assembly appropriated $1.5 million for that purpose. When matched with federal Medicaid funds, Kentucky will have about $11 million for the smoking cessation program.

The Medicaid Smoking Cessation Coalition is currently working with Kentucky Medicaid to expedite regulations to establish a comprehensive smoking cessation program for Medicaid beneficiaries. We look forward to the timely implementation of this expanded benefit and will work with the Medicaid program to help educate Kentuckians and promote better health care in Kentucky.

This is truly an example of sound public policy that other states should emulate. All states should make the right choice and provide their Medicaid enrollees with a proven and effective way to quit smoking. They would do well to learn from the Bluegrass State.

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