{"id":2195,"date":"2019-02-04T08:42:07","date_gmt":"2019-02-04T13:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/?p=2195"},"modified":"2019-02-04T08:43:05","modified_gmt":"2019-02-04T13:43:05","slug":"2195-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/2195-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The State Shortchanges Tobacco Control"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Last year marked the 20<sup>th<\/sup> anniversary of the\nMaster Settlement Agreement between the tobacco industry and the nation\u2019s\nstates.&nbsp; The Master Settlement Agreement\n(MSA) ended litigation brought by the states against the nation\u2019s major tobacco\ncompanies.&nbsp; In that litigation the states\ncharged that the tobacco companies deliberately misled the general public, and\nspecifically smokers, about the dangers of their products.&nbsp; As a result, more people smoked, more people\ngot sick, and the states had to pick up additional \u2013 and significantly higher \u2013\nhealth care costs, particularly through the Medicaid program.&nbsp; Medicaid offers health insurance for the poor\nand states\u2019 pick up much of the tab.&nbsp; Big\nTobacco also settled a separate case with the federal government over similar\nclaims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The MSA was an agreement by the states to drop their\nlitigation if the industry made marketing changes and paid the states hundreds\nof billions of dollars over the next few decades to compensate them for the\nhealth care costs resulting from the misery of sick smokers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>New York was a party to that agreement and at that time\nheralded the MSA as a way for the state to have new resources for health care\nand financing to keep kids from starting to smoke and to help smokers to quit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A report released this week examined the financial impact of\nthe MSA on New York and concluded that the state shortchanges its programs to\nkeep kids from using tobacco products and to help smokers to quit.&nbsp; According to the New York Public Interest\nResearch Group (NYPIRG), the state has collected over $39 billion from tobacco\ntaxes and revenues from the MSA.&nbsp; As part\nof that agreement, the tobacco industry has paid the state nearly $16 billion\nover the past twenty years.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet despite promises to use a portion of the revenues for\ntobacco control programs, the state spends far less than recommended by the\nfederal government and, when accounting for inflation, spends less today than\nit did 20 years ago on the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The report, <em>Dissipated<\/em>,\nreviewed the revenues collected by New York State and its spending on tobacco\ncontrol.&nbsp; The report found:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>New\nYork State has received nearly $16 billion in tobacco revenues from the MSA\nsince it went into effect in 1999.<\/li><li>New\nYork has collected over $23 billion in tobacco taxes and fees since the MSA\nwent into effect. &nbsp;Combined with tobacco\nrevenues from the MSA, New York has collected over $39 billion. <\/li><li>Despite\nthis windfall, New York spends less today (adjusted for inflation) on its state\ntobacco control program than ever. New York has spent less than $1 billion on\ntobacco control since the MSA, despite promises to use the money to combat\ntobacco addiction.<\/li><li>It\nappears that the state does follow expert guidance on how to implement a\ntobacco control program, but independent audits have repeatedly identified the\nstate\u2019s lack of resources as a major flaw.<\/li><li>Despite\nimpressive reductions in tobacco use statewide, the vast majority of New York\ncounties have smoking rates that exceed the national average. &nbsp;The counties tend to be upstate, older, and\nmore rural. &nbsp;Recent studies have shown\nthat children in similar communities are at the greatest risk of exposure to\nsecond-hand tobacco smoke, a known human carcinogen.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In the report,NYPIRG\nrecommended:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>New\nYork should increase its commitment to tobacco control efforts by following the\nrecommendations of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s (CDC)\nguidelines; it recommends the state spend at least $140 million annually.<\/li><li>New\nYork should target its resources to those areas of the state hardest hit by\ntobacco use.<\/li><li>Given\nthe dramatic increased use of electronic cigarettes, they should be taxed at\nthe equivalence of combustible cigarettes and those revenues earmarked for the\nstate\u2019s underfunded tobacco control efforts.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>This week, New York lawmakers\nexamine the governor\u2019s proposed health budget, which does not include any\nincreases in spending on tobacco control programs.&nbsp; Hopefully, this is the year that the\nLegislature will demand that New York reverse course and boost its efforts to\ncurb tobacco use.&nbsp; New York has the\nmoney, all it needs is the political will.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last year marked the 20th anniversary of the Master Settlement Agreement between the tobacco industry and the nation\u2019s states.&nbsp; The Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) ended litigation brought by the states against the nation\u2019s major tobacco companies.&nbsp; In that litigation the states charged that the tobacco companies deliberately misled the general public, and specifically smokers, about [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2195"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2197,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2195\/revisions\/2197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}