New Mexico is falling short when it comes to supporting policies and passing legislation to prevent and reduce suffering and death from cancer. According to the latest edition of “How Do You Measure Up?: A Progress Report on State Legislative Activity to Reduce Cancer Incidence and Mortality,” New Mexico measured up to policy recommendations in just three of the 10 issue areas ranked. The report was released by the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.
We’ve made tremendous progress in the way we diagnose and treat cancer across the country. But to leverage this progress, New Mexico legislators must take advantage of the opportunities to pass evidence-based laws and policies that are proven to save lives and money.
In New Mexico alone in 2016, 9,750 people will be diagnosed with cancer and 3,690 will die from it. We can’t defer appropriate legislative action when the stakes are that high. This report outlines ways lawmakers can make a difference by emphasizing cancer prevention, curbing tobacco use and prioritizing quality of life for patients and their families.
A color-coded system used in the “How Do You Measure Up?” classifies how well a state is doing in cancer-fighting categories. Green shows that a state has adopted best practices; yellow indicates moderate movement toward the benchmark, and red shows where states are falling short.
New Mexico is headed for the “red” when it comes to funding tobacco prevention and cessation programs. The state is contemplating an ill-advised raid on the Tobacco Settlement Fund to fix budget challenges that will put tobacco prevention programs at risk in the future. Currently, New Mexico allocates only a quarter of what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends for tobacco prevention and cessation. Without this funding, smoking rates will rebound, which will lead to higher cancer rates since we know 30 percent of all cancers are linked to smoking.
Lawmakers should also seriously consider increasing the state tobacco tax in New Mexico. A $1 tobacco tax increase would raise $33 million in revenue annually, help reduce state health care costs by $6.2 million over five years, and save an estimated 5,100 lives. Smoking costs New Mexico $844 million each year in direct health care costs. The proposed tax includes all tobacco products, including hookah and electronic cigarettes, which youth are using at an alarmingly increasing rate.
Smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death in New Mexico. Go to www.fightcancer.org to find out more.
Lacey Daniell, M.P.A., is the New Mexico Grassroots Manager for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, the nation’s leading cancer advocacy organization that is working every day to make cancer issues a national priority.
This Op-Ed appeared in the Santa Fe New Mexican. To see it there, click here.
