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COST OF TOBACCO PREVENTION

- Tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of death and disease, causing approximately 400,000 deaths annually and costing more than $180 billion in health care bills and lost productivity each year in the United States. Smoking is a major risk factor for cancer, heart and lung disease. For every one person who dies of a smoking attributable disease, there are 20 more people who are suffering with at least one serious illness from smoking.

- Healthy People 2010 objectives strive to eliminate health disparities and reduce the burden of disease among all population groups. Disparities clearly exist among population groups related to tobacco use.

- One of the national health objectives for 2010 is to provide coverage by Medicaid in 50 states for nicotine- dependence treatment.

- The first step in eliminating these disparities is to identify which groups are experiencing a high burden of disease, an increase in tobacco use, or difficulty in accessing tobacco control programs.

- Many people experience decreased quality of life due to the adverse health consequences of tobacco use and society will ultimately bear substantial direct and indirect economic costs from these diseases.

- Future changes in the direction of smoking –attributable cost will depend on investment in tobacco control. Without efforts to reduce rates of tobacco use, healthcare costs related to tobacco will continue to rise.

- In the current budget year (2006), the states combined have allocated $551 million for tobacco prevention programs. Compare this to the 15.4 billion annually, or $42 million a day tobacco companies are spending on marketing there products. This means that tobacco companies spend more on marketing in a single day than 47 states spend on tobacco prevention in an entire year.

- 1.6 billion is needed for every state to fund prevention programs at the CDC minimum levels.

- Evidence shows that prevention programs work,...