50-Cent Rise in Cigarrette Tax Could Result in 3 mill. Fewerr Smokers

By Join Together Staff  November 29, 2012 Reposted at http://www.tobaccodeathray.blogspot.com,

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates a 50-cent hike in the U.S. cigarette tax could result in a decrease of more than three million smokers by 2085. The tax increase would either encourage people to quit, or would keep people from starting to smoke, the researchers say.

The CBO report, which appears in the New England Journal of Medicine, estimates 200,000 of those three million people would have died before that year if the tax hike were not in effect. The CBO does independent analyses of budget issues for Congress.

The current federal cigarette tax is $1.01, HealthDay reports.

The decrease in the number of smokers would result in $730 million in savings in healthcare costs between 2013 and 2021, the report notes. In the long term, federal spending would increase, because of the additional people living into old age, who would use Social Security and Medicare.

Overall, the CBO estimated the cigarette tax increase would result in a small projected reduction in the federal deficit in 2035. “Consequences for the federal budget are only one factor that lawmakers may consider when developing policies to promote health,” the report concluded.

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1210319

Cigarette Taxes "Disporportionatelt Burden" The Poor, Report Says

Cigarette Taxes ‘Disproportionately Burden’ the Poor, Report Says

Posted at http://www.actiontoquit.org/news/Cigarette-Taxes-Disproportionately-Burden-the-Poor-Report-Says/ reposted at http://www.tobaccodeathray.blogspot.com

September 18, 2012 New research finds that high cigarette taxes take a heavy toll on low-income smokers, compared to those who are wealthier. In a study, researchers at RTI International found that poor smokers in New York state—which has the country’s highest state cigarette tax at $4.35 a pack—spent about 25 percent of their household income on cigarettes. Nationally, the average spending was about 14 percent. By contrast, the richest smokers nationwide and in New York spent about 2 percent of their household income on cigarettes.

“Excise taxes are effective in changing smokers’ behavior,” study author Matthew Farrelly, chief scientist and senior director of RTI’s public health policy research program, said in an RTI statement. “But not all smokers are able to quit, and low-income smokers are disproportionately burdened by these taxes.”

For More Information:
http://www.healthfinder.gov/news/newsstory.aspx?Docid=668663&source=govdelivery