A broad coalition of Kentucky health care advocates will gather in Frankfort on Wednesday, October 21, to urge Governor Steve Beshear to fund a Medicaid smoking cessation program created by the legislature in 2007, but never funded. Kentucky is one of only six states not to offer such a program.
Passed into law in 2007, HB 337 created a comprehensive smoking cessation program, including counseling and medications, for the 285,000 smokers on Kentucky Medicaid. Unfortunately, no funding was attached and the program has languished for two years as an unfunded mandate.
Advocates will urge Governor Beshear to save lives and taxpayer dollars by funding this critical program to help those on Medicaid quit smoking.
Kentucky has one of the nation’s highest adult smoking rates and highest smoking-related death rates in the country. Yet, for approximately $5 million ($1.5 from Kentucky and $3.5 in Federal matching funds), the Commonwealth could save thousands of lives and reduce our state’s Medicaid costs by millions per year.
Passed into law in 2007, HB 337 created a comprehensive smoking cessation program, including counseling and medications, for the 285,000 smokers on Kentucky Medicaid. Unfortunately, no funding was attached and the program has languished for two years as an unfunded mandate.
Advocates will urge Governor Beshear to save lives and taxpayer dollars by funding this critical program to help those on Medicaid quit smoking.
Kentucky has one of the nation’s highest adult smoking rates and highest smoking-related death rates in the country. Yet, for approximately $5 million ($1.5 from Kentucky and $3.5 in Federal matching funds), the Commonwealth could save thousands of lives and reduce our state’s Medicaid costs by millions per year.
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