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An increase in the state cigarette tax is long overdue and the Legislature should approve one this session. But lawmakers shouldn’t rush into the Medicaid expansion recommended by the Senate Finance Committee. Something less ambitious is needed.
Last month, the Finance Committee approved, for the second year in a row, a major expansion of the state Medicaid program. Critics reasonably question whether the receipts from a 50-cent tax will be enough to cover the cost.
Sen. Larry Grooms, R-Berkeley, argues that the program expansion will be followed by an increase in participation that can’t be sustained by the tax hike.
Sen. Grooms, led an effort to use anticipated tax revenues, some $159 million, to provide tax credits to small companies for medical insurance for the working poor. That plan has the benefit of engaging the marketplace in a health care solution.
Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell says the Finance Committee plan for expanding Medicaid doesn’t have sufficient support in the full Senate for passage.
The Senate leader supports the tax credit idea, but says revenue from the tax hike also could be used to bolster the previous Medicaid expansion for children, as well as educational programs aimed at reducing tobacco use among young people. His compromise is worth exploring.
At 7 cents a pack, the state tax on discount cigarettes is the lowest in the nation, and hasn’t been increased in 20 years. An increase would raise money for health care programs but, as important, would likely reduce cigarette consumption, based on the experience elsewhere.
That in itself would be a step forward in the state’s general health and well-being.
The Legislature should recognize the general health care benefits that can be gained from taxing cheap cigarettes and move toward a solution that can be enacted this year.

As a result of an agreement between state and federal health ministers, the sale of flavoured cigaretteswill be banned in Australia.
Nicola Roxon the Federal Health Minister met her state counterparts in Melbourne at the Australian Health Minister Conference last week in order to thrash out a range of health issues.
Ms Roxon says the cigarette ban will target tobacco products flavoured either with chocolate or fruit flavours with the intention of enticing children and young people to smoke.
A ban on their importation is being considered and although the sale of the flavoured cigarettes is already banned in some states including NSW and South Australia, lemon, orange, strawberry and apple flavoured cigarettes are currently available alongside regular flavoured cigarettes in several states and territories.
The ministers have also agreed to draw up national regulations and guidelines for the use of solariums in order to help ensure young people do not risk getting skin cancer.
They plan to utilise steps already taken in Victoria to regulate the solarium industry and Ms Roxon says have adopted some national principles that will be put in place.
A $15 million funding boost will also give health workers greater access to specialised mental health training and go towards training 24,000 health workers to enhance their skills when they are dealing in particular with patients with complex mental health problems.

A meeting of emergency services ministers in Canberra on Wednesday deliberated upon the need for introducing "fire-proof" cigarettes that get extinguished on their own as the smoker drops the butt, a measure that may help reduce the risk of fires in homes and the bush.
New South Wales (NSW) Emergency Services Minister Nathan Rees moved the resolution to make the reduced fire risk (RFR) cigarettes, which are already produced overseas in Canada and New York, mandatory under the Trade Practices Act as early as next year.
"We hope this will be law by early 2009, requiring all cigarettes manufactured and sold throughout Australia to be self-extinguishing," the Daily Telegraph quoted him as saying.
"Every day’s delay is another day we live with the risk that someone will be killed or injured or homes or bush land destroyed because cigarettes keep burning when they are dropped or thrown from a car window," he added.
Each year, around 4500 fires are caused by cigarette ignitions in Australia. Fires, directly attributed to cigarettes, claimed about 65 lives between 2000 and 2005.
A significant decline has resulted in fire deaths in New York since the introduction of RFR cigarettes in New York in 2004, according to preliminary data.
According to NSW Fire Brigades, a normal cigarette dropped on furnishings may start a fire in less than 18 minutes, whereas an RFR cigarette extinguishes on its own.
Rees said that some people in the industry had expressed non-acceptance to the introduction of the RFR cigarette, complaining about costs, difficulties in testing, and compliance and production lead times.
"NSW does not accept that the industry needs an 18-month to two-year time frame to introduce these cigarettes, which are already being produced and sold in Canada and a number of states in the US," he said.
The newspaper report says that the Australian tobacco industry is concerned that no testing has been done to ensure that the cigarettes do not pose a further risk to smokers’ health.

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