Quit Smoking Program Money Running Out
State Rep. John Litz said smoking is legal in Tennessee and that state employees shouldn’t be forced to pay an additional $50 a month on their insurance if they use tobacco products.
“I’m not sure that we as a state are not beginning to overstep our bounds by going into people’s personal lives,” said Litz. “They’ve already talked about adding obesity to this and putting a surcharge on this the next time it comes around. What’s going to be next — a diabetic?”A few years ago, the state got more than $10 million to set up and fund programs to promote quitting smoking. Thousands of people have taken advantage of these programs, but the money is now running dry.
A $50 charge on tobacco users would keep the funding alive. The surcharge would not go into effect until January 2010, but Litz and others are trying to delay it for a year.A vote could happen this week. If the legislation passes, anyone under the state’s insurance program, teachers and county employees would also be immune from the fee.”We have hard data that says if you smoke, you have increased health care costs, and a lot of those increased health care costs fall on you and me and the state,” said Shelley Courington of the Campaign for a Healthy and Responsible Tennessee.
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