From the health blog at The New Republic, a report from a public health policy researcher at the University of Chicago tells a disturbing tale of the ways that budget cutbacks impcat those who need help the most.
A recent story in the Grand Rapids Press illustrates the real-world consequences of this imbalance. As detailed by reporter Shandra Martinez (and by a complementary Associated Press account) Michigan sporadically fields a Tobacco Quit Line. The hot line offered callers free nicotine patches, gum or lozenges to help people quit. In five days, the hotline received more than 65,000 calls. Martinez reports that many callers were motivated by a pending 61-cent rise in the cigarette tax, as well as by the prospect of free nicotine replacement products, which the state buys wholesale at a marked discount. (Callers would also participate in five 15-20 minute counseling sessions to help them quit.)
This is how public health policy is supposed to work. Dozens of clinical studies indicate that telephone-based counseling and accompanying pharmacotherapy are effective in helping people to quit. The quit line is also attractive for equity reasons. Let’s face it: Smokers pay large and growing sums in tobacco taxes. As a card-carrying member of the American Public Health Association, I strongly favor these taxes. The economic burden is still real. Smokers–particularly those trying to quit–have a strong claim on at least some of these revenues. People who call the quit line deserve the help and the modest subsidy.
Unfortunately, the Tobacco Quit Line ran out of free products. In tough budgetary times, Michigan has closed the Quit Line for the rest of the fiscal year, which ends September 31. Oh yeah, the Quit Line employed about 400 smoking cessation counselors to field the crush of calls.
