Opinion: A tobacco tax increase would make Maryland healthier
Matthew L. Myers, Washington – The Washington Post
The Dec. 28 editorial “A tax that saves lives” pointed out that Maryland’s push to reduce smoking is not only good public health policy but also good fiscal policy. It helps reduce tobacco-related health-care costs, which total $2.7 billion a year in Maryland, including $476 million paid by the state’s Medicaid program.
That should spur Gov.-elect Larry Hogan (R) and legislators to step up efforts to prevent kids from using tobacco and to help users quit.
Ideally, Maryland would increase its tobacco tax. The last tobacco tax increase, in 2008, helped reduce smoking among youth and adults.
Maryland must also increase funding for its tobacco prevention and cessation programs, which have been cut by more than half in recent years. Maryland will receive $543 million from the 1998 tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes this year, but it will spend just $8.5 million on tobacco prevention. This paltry sum is less than 18 percent of what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends. These programs save lives and money. Washington state saves more than $5 in health-care costs for every $1 spent on its program.
Maryland can’t let up; the tobacco industry isn’t letting up in promoting its products. Nationwide, Big Tobacco spends $8.8 billion a year on marketing, including more than $120 million in Maryland. The result: Tobacco remains the No. 1 cause of preventable death. Unless Maryland’s leaders continue to fight this scourge, the state will pay a high price in lives and dollars.
Matthew L. Myers, Washington
The writer is president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
