WASHINGTON, D.C. -- January 29, 2009 -- The U.S. Senate today took an important step in support of public health by voting to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) with an increase in the federal tobacco tax. The bill not only would improve access to quality health care for millions of uninsured children, but it also would raise the federal cigarette tax by 61 cents, to a total of $1 per pack.
“Increasing the federal tobacco tax is a win-win for our country, with the funds providing low-income children access to health care while at the same time reducing the scourge of a deadly product that kills 444,000 Americans each year,” said John R. Seffrin, Ph.D., national chief executive officer of the American Cancer Society and its advocacy affiliate, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN). “The cigarette tax increase the largest single increase ever would encourage millions of people to give up their deadly smoking habit, saving more than 900,000 lives and preventing 1.9 million children from becoming lifelong tobacco users.”
Research shows that increasing the cigarette tax by 61 cents per pack would reduce youth smoking by an estimated seven percent and overall cigarette consumption by four percent. This bill could go a long way to help combat Big Tobacco’s efforts to addict a new generation of customers.
When signed by the president, this would be the first enactment of an increase in the tobacco tax since 1997. More than 12,000 ACS CAN volunteers voiced their support for an increase in the tobacco tax to expand the SCHIP program, by contacting their lawmakers in the last few weeks.
“The strong, bipartisan support for this bill that resulted in its quick passage sends the message that Congress is serious about enacting nationwide health care reform.,” said Daniel E. Smith, president of ACS CAN. “I am also hopeful that increasing the federal cigarette tax is an indication of a broader commitment by lawmakers to further protect children from the clutches of Big Tobacco by passing critical legislation to give the Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate tobacco products and the marketing of those products to children.”
The Family Smoking Prevention Tobacco Control Act would at long last grant the Food and Drug Administration, which regulates virtually all other ingestible consumer goods, the power to regulate the manufacture, sale and distribution of tobacco products. The legislation passed the House of Representatives for the first time last year with the strong support of ACS CAN and 850 other public health and faith-based groups. The public health community is hopeful for quick action on the bill this year.
ACS CAN is the nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy affiliate of the American Cancer Society, dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem. ACS CAN works to encourage lawmakers, candidates and government officials to support laws and policies that will make cancer a top national priority. ACS CAN gives ordinary people extraordinary power to fight cancer. For more information, visit https://www.fightcancer.org/.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Alissa Havens
Phone: (202) 661-5772
Email: [email protected]
Christina Saull
Phone: (202) 585-3250
Email: [email protected]