Quitting Smoking Saves Everyone Money, Write your Politicans today

Helping people quit smoking has never been a popular issue. Individuals who have never smoked can’t understand how anyone would ever start and think a smoker should just put the cigarette down and walk away. Smokers scream about their right to smoke and are encouraged by the tobacco industry trying to maintain their profits. Former smokers say that if they can quit, anybody can quit and often forget their own struggle in becoming smoke free. Yet ask the approximately 19 million smokers that attempt to quit each year, and they will tell you, that help is what they desperately need, since only 4% to 7% are likely to be successful after a year according to the U.S. Public Health Service.
In the State of California, only 15% of the population still smokes, yet upwards of 50% of these smokers also have a mental illness or an alcohol or substance abuse problem as well. Smokers also tend to be among the poor and uneducated. If it was easy for the current smokers to quit, they would have done so already, yet this segment of the population is the disenfranchised that few will listen to and are the ones that society has a moral obligation to help. There are effective interventions and medications to help these smokers yet they can be expensive since most insurance companies do not cover addiction to nicotine as they do with other addictive substances.
Originally the Economic Stimulus package contained funds to help with smoking cessation but has been cut yet according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and leading cessation providers, this $75 million investment in tobacco cessation would:
§ Produce at least 1,500 new jobs for smoking quit line counselors
§ Help 100,000 smokers quit
§ Save $10,000 to $15,000 in long-term health care costs per smoker who quits
§ Produce total savings of $1 billion to $1.5 billion in long-term health care costs.
The diseases caused by smoking are some of the most expensive to treat. Heart disease, stroke, 30% of all cancers, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and peripheral artery disease which the US Public Health Service estimates the cost in direct medical expenses is $96 Billion per year and $97 Billion in lost productivity. They estimate that if all smokers covered by state Medicaid programs quit, the annual savings to Medicaid would be $9.7 Billion after 5 years.
As a former smoker, and cancer survivor I personally know how devastating the effects of smoking can be physically, mentally, emotionally and financially and since treatments for nicotine addiction are highly cost-effective, I think it is extremely important to support smoking cessation efforts by the following efforts:
§ Support tobacco cessation and prevention in either the current Stimulus package as a stand alone provision or in general funds to the CDC.
§ Support legislation that health insurance companies and Medicaid include tobacco cessation as a covered item.

Why Are Smokers More Likely to have less Education and Less Income?

More and more people are quitting every day. If it was easy for you to quit smoking, you probably would have quit already. But those who are still smoking are more likely to have less education, less income and are more likely to have a substance abuse problem or a mental illness. This does NOT apply to all smokers but this is the group that are having a hard time quitting. Is there a connection? Up to 95% of individuals with schizophrenia smoke and 85% of hard core alcoholics are also smokers. If you have a substance abuse problem or a mental illness, then it would stand to reason that you might make less money than someone without these added problems or have more difficulty in maintaining employment?
Individuals with substance abuse problems and mental illness are also the ones that are probably more highly physically addicted and are best candidates for medications, yet often they can't afford the up front cost for these type of help because of their lower income, while those with higher income are able to pay for help out of pocket.
Most insurance companies do not pay for medications or counseling to stop smoking while the tobacco companies spend $164 million each year to try and get more people to start smoking.
If everyone on medicaid stopped smoking, the annual savings after 5 years would be $9.7 Billion.
Smoking is more than just a bad habit, it is a health care crisis that costs our society $7.18 for every pack of cigarettes sold. It's time for us to stand up and recognize the health care problem that smoking has created and it's time to do something about it, it's time to prevent the next generation from ever starting, it's time to help every smoker quit who wants to quit and it's time to recognize that smoking is an addiction that our society can not afford to support. And it is the weakest individuals within our society that tobacco hurts the most, the poor, the under educated and those suffering from other addictions.

We Need More Help For Those Trying to Quit Smoking

Many insurance policies do not cover programs or medications to quit smoking, yet quitting smoking is the best thing a smoker can do to improve their health. The long term cost savings alone would more than cover the initial cost. 50% of smokers will die from a direct cause of their smoking, which are very expensive diseases-heart disease, cancer, emphysema, stroke, just to name a few. But does that mean the 50% of smokers can smoke without consequences??--No, it just means that they die from something that is not smoke related but that doesn't mean that their health wasn't affected by smoking. A man with emphysema was in one of my workshops and told of the time he was driving from Texas to California and someplace in Arizona, his oxygen tank ran out of oxygen and he passed out and wrecked his car. Luckily he wasn't hurt. Mr. O'Kelly was a patient I took care of, who came in for daily treatments for his emphysema. He died from complications from his medications for his emphysema. In neither of these two cases would "smoking" have been the "cause" of death and would fall outside of the 50% statistic.
Statistics don't apply on an individual basis. The average American family has 2.4 children--have you ever seen a .4 child? But we kid ourselves that not all smokers are affected because they don't die but what we should really be talking about is--disability. How many smokers become disabled because of smoking? I haven't seen any statistics on that but from the individuals that have been through my workshops since 1990, I would estimate that close to 90% have some kind of health problem related to smoking.
So why don't the insurance companies do more? Politics--individuals who have never smoked, will say--I don't understand why the smoker just doesn't put down their cigarette and walk away? Smokers will agree that it is their right to smoke and that is isn't an addiction. Then we have the smokers that really do want to quit but need help but can't afford medications (even though cigarettes are expensive, the cost is spread out over days, instead of one big upfront cost, like with medications). Some will get information from the internet or from the very few books that are out there. but many don't want to spend anymore needless money on another 100% guaranteed program or gimmick that just doesn't work.
Helping others quit is my passion because I know that misery that being treated for cancer can be--and I'm a survivor but will have effects from the treatment for the rest of my life. That's the reason for this blog--to share with you free information that will hopefully help you to live smoke free. Let me know what you need help with and I will post suggestions for all questions.