ACA Tobacco Cessation Requirement Guidance

Last week the Obama Administration issued a FAQ document making clear the tobacco cessation services that health insurers are required to cover under the Affordable Care Act. This guidance tells insurers that they must cover, without cost-sharing, screening for tobacco use and, for those who use tobacco products, at least two tobacco cessation attempts per year.  This coverage should include four tobacco counseling sessions and FDA-approved tobacco cessation medications. 

Here is a link to the guidance – the tobacco cessation information is in Question 5: http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/faqs/faq-aca19.html.  

Here is a link to the CTFK statement: http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/press_releases/post/2014_05_02_obama

Victoria Almquist
Director, Outreach
Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids  

The Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids has many useful fact sheets available for download. Reposted at http://www.tobaccodeathray.blogspot.com,

Fact Sheets Tobacco Marketing to Kids

• Tobacco Company Marketing to Kids

• Trends in Tobacco Industry Marketing
• Tobacco Company Marketing that Reaches Kids: Point of Purchase Advertising and Promotions
• State-Specific Tobacco Company Marketing Expenditures 1998 to 2010
• Allocations of U.S. Cigarette Company Marketing Expenditures Since 1998
• Cigarette Company Youth Access Initiatives: Fake and Ineffective
• Tobacco Companies Cannot Survive Unless Kids Smoke
• The Impact of Smoking in the Movies on Youth Smoking Levels
• Tobacco Company Quotes on Marketing to Kids
• Simple and Inexpensive Government Strategy to Counter Tobacco Product Ads (And Reduce Tobacco Use and Its Harms and Costs)

 

Go to http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/facts_issues/fact_sheets/toll/tobacco_kids/marketing/

Senator Lautenberg Was a Champion in the Fight Against Tobacco

Statement of Matthew L. Myers, President, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Jun. 3 2013

Reposted at http://www.tobaccodeathray.blogspot.com,

WASHINGTON, DC – We are deeply saddened to learn of the death of Senator Frank Lautenberg this morning. Our nation has lost a true leader, who among his many accomplishments fought passionately to protect our nation’s kids and health from the deadly scourge of tobacco use.

Throughout his career, Senator Lautenberg courageously took on the tobacco industry and championed efforts to reduce tobacco use, the nation’s number one cause of preventable death. Earlier in his service, he led efforts to ban smoking on commercial airline flights and in federal buildings, inspiring the national movement to require smoke-free workplaces and public places. He fought to stop the fraudulent marketing of “light” and “low-tar” cigarettes and to require disclosure of ingredients in tobacco products, which became part of the landmark 2009 law that gave the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authority over tobacco. More recently, he has worked to expose the marketing of flavored cigars to kids, increase tobacco taxes and crack down on tobacco smuggling. He also was a leader in the successful effort to urge Major League Baseball to restrict players’ use of smokeless tobacco on the field and at public events.

Senator Lautenberg’s legacy includes a healthier nation due to his efforts to reduce tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke. We are grateful for his hard work and dedication to this nation. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.

Originally posted at   http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/press_releases/post/2013_06_03_lautenberg

Indonesia Tobacco Giant’s Shameful Billboard Says “DON’T QUIT”

PT Djarum puts profits over lives

Reposted at http://www.tobaccodeathray.blogspot.com, posted by blog editor June 10, 2013 at http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/tobacco_unfiltered/post/2013_06_10_indonesia/?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=tobacco_unfiltered

Indonesia has been called the tobacco industry’s playground due to the country’s large number of smokers and unrestricted tobacco marketing.

In the latest example, Indonesian tobacco giant PT Djarum has placed billboards promoting its L.A. Lights cigarettes with the shameful slogan “DON’T QUIT.” If discouraging smokers from quitting isn’t bad enough, the ad appears to mock efforts to reduce smoking by instead encouraging smokers to “DO IT” and using the slogan “Let’s Do It!”

Left unsaid is the fact that half of all smokers who follow these directions to keep smoking instead of quitting will die prematurely as a result.

It’s only the latest example of deplorable tobacco marketing in Indonesia.

In 2011, Philip Morris subsidiary Sampoerna placed a billboard in Jakarta that basically told Indonesian kids cigarettes are a “cool friend” worth dying for. The billboard depicted a young man reaching out to catch up with friends on a bus, with the slogan: "Dying is better than leaving a friend. Sampoerna is a cool friend."

Tobacco companies also regularly sponsor concerts in Indonesia, often featuring music stars popular with youth. This highly effective way of marketing cigarettes to kids has been banned in the United States and many countries, but not in Indonesia.

Until Indonesia enacts strong tobacco control measures, the tobacco industry will remain free to engage in irresponsible marketing in a country where two-thirds of men use tobacco, more than 200,000 people die each year from tobacco-related disease, and 20 percent of youth aged 13-15 smoke.

Indonesia is the only country in Southeast Asia that has yet to ratify the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control – the health treaty that obligates parties to implement proven methods to reduce tobacco use, including bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorships. Djarum’s new ad is a powerful reminder why Indonesia’s government must act now to protect the country’s children and health.

Judge Orders Tobacco Companies to Tell Truth

Statement of Matthew L. Myers, President, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids

Reprinted at http://www.tobaccodeathray.blogspot.com,

WASHINGTON, DC – A federal judge today ordered tobacco companies to admit that they have deliberately deceived the American public and finally tell the truth about their deadly and addictive products and fraudulent marketing. Today’s ruling is a critical step toward ending decades of tobacco industry deception that has resulted in millions of premature deaths, untold suffering and billions in health care costs. Requiring the tobacco companies to finally tell the truth is a small price to pay for the devastating consequences of their wrongdoing.

Today’s ruling implements the corrective statements U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler first ordered tobacco companies to make in 2006 when she found them guilty of violating civil racketeering laws and engaging in a decades-long fraud to deceive the American people.

It is particularly important that Judge Kessler ordered the tobacco companies to admit in each corrective statement that “a Federal court has ruled that the Defendant tobacco companies deliberately deceived the American public.” Judge Kessler ordered the corrective statements to prevent future deception by the tobacco companies. To achieve this goal, the tobacco companies must be required to tell the public the truth not only about their products, but also about their prior deceit so consumers will not be misled in the future. Without such an admission, the tobacco companies could turn the court’s requirement that they tell the truth into an opportunity to appear trustworthy, enabling them to continue deceiving the public.

Implementing Judge Kessler’s 2006 judgment, today’s order requires tobacco companies to make corrective statements about the adverse health effects of smoking and secondhand smoke; the addictiveness of nicotine; the lack of health benefits from smoking “light” and “low-tar” cigarettes; and the companies’ manipulation of cigarette design and composition to ensure optimum nicotine delivery. The corrective statements will be made through newspaper and television advertising, on the companies’ web sites and on cigarette packaging.

The Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund (a 501c4 affiliate of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids) is one of six public health groups that Judge Kessler allowed to intervene in the case, along with the American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, American Lung Association, Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights and National African American Tobacco Prevention Network.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sns-rt-usa-tobacco-update-1l1e8mr9lr-20121127,0,1198091,full.story

Health Insurance Plans Fall Short in Covering Mandated Tobacco Cessation Treatments

Many health insurance plans are failing to provide coverage mandated by the health care reform law for treatments to help smokers and other tobacco users quit, according to a study of insurance contracts by Georgetown University researchers conducted for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. The authors recommend that federal and state regulators give insurers detailed guidance on what tobacco cessation coverage is required under the landmark Affordable Care Act (ACA). The ACA requires all new private health insurance plans to cover preventive health services recommended with an A or B grade by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), with no cost-sharing such as co-pays. These recommendations include tobacco cessation treatments, which received an A grade. The USPSTF recommends that clinicians ask adults about tobacco use and provide cessation interventions for tobacco users. It found that more or longer counseling sessions improve quit rates and combining counseling with medication is more effective for treating tobacco dependence than either therapy used alone.

The report is attached to this blogpage Reports section.

Reprinted at http://www.tobaccodeathray.blogspot.com

Court: Tobacco Deliberately Deceived Public

Judge Gladys Kessler has issued her ruling on the corrective statements in the federal lawsuit against the tobacco industry, ordering tobacco companies to admit in each corrective statement that “a Federal court has ruled that the Defendant tobacco companies deliberately deceived the American public.”  The corrective statements will be made through newspaper and television advertising, on the companies’ web sites and on cigarette packaging. The Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, one of the public health organizations advocating that tobacco companies publicly admit their deception, provides a press statement below. The court Order is attached on the reports page. Here is the Reuters story.  

 

Reprinted at http://www.tobaccodeathray.blogspot.com