Massachusetts - if states cover tobacco cessation treatment cost will smokers quit??

December 12, 2010 - When Massachusetts started paying for stop-smoking treatments, for low-income smokers not only kicked the habit but also had fewer heart attacks, researchers reported on Tuesday, December 7th in the first study to show a clear payoff from investing in smoking prevention efforts.

Background:
November 19, 2009 - Lower income Massachusetts smokers have dramatically abandoned their habit amid a major state campaign that vigorously promotes and pays for tobacco addiction treatment. (Massachusettes - lower income smokers giving up their nicotine addiction..);

December 18, 2009 - Successful Massachusetts tobacco cessation program gets national attention..;

July 14, 2010 - Boston, MA. - gets federal stimulus funding for obesity and tobacco prevention projects...

Thomas Land and colleagues at the Massachusetts Tobacco Cessation and Prevention Program, as well as the Harvard Medical School, looked at hospital records for the study.

PAPER: A Longitudinal Study of Medicaid Coverage for Tobacco Dependence Treatments in Massachusetts and Associated Decreases in Hospitalizations for Cardiovascular Disease, Thomas Land, Nancy A. Rigotti, Douglas E. Levy, Mark Paskowsky, Donna Warner, Jo-Ann Kwass, LeAnn Wetherell, Lois Keithly, published in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Medicine, ABSTRACT, FULL TEXT and Editors' Summary..

The results suggest states can save money from investing in efforts to cut smoking -- found the yearly rate of hospital admissions for heart attacks fell by 46 percent for Medicaid clients and 49 percent fewer of them were hospitalized for clogged arteries.

"The dramatic decline in heart attack hospitalizations for smokers who used the benefit is stunning and demonstrates the effectiveness of tobacco treatment coverage that includes behavioral counseling and medicines approved by the Food and Drug Administration," American Heart Association CEO Nancy Brown, who was not involved in the research, said in a statement.

Reference: When the state paid, people stopped smoking: study by Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor, Editing by Vicki Allen, Reuters, 12/7/2010.

Massachusetts - some related news briefs:
Massachusetts Hospital Association - as of January 1, 2011 will no longer hire users of tobacco products..;
Cambridge, MA city counsel studying proposal to ban smoking in public parks..;
Boston Area - tobacco signs more plentiful in city's poorer areas..
Lorillard claims not liable in a 2004 lawsuit by a former black Newport smoker..;
Boston, Massachusetts - next, ban smoking in all public housing..;
Boston, MA. - gets federal stimulus funding for obesity and tobacco prevention projects..;
Massachusetts - senate votes to license 3-totally no-smoking casinos..;
Massachusetts - City of Everett to ban tobacco sales in pharmacies..;
Massachusetts - may force retailers to display graphic warning signs of perils of tobacco..;
Massachusetts - jury rejects condo owner's lawsuit that realtor did not inform that neighbor smoked..;
Massachusetts - YOUTH - cigars and smokeless tobacco use surpasses cigarettes..;
Successful Massachusetts tobacco cessation program gets national attention..;
Massachusettes - lower income smokers giving up their nicotine addiction..;
Massachusettes - smoker loses job and then loses in federal court..;
Massachusetts - smokeless tobacco purchasers settle class action suit..;
Boston's ban on blunt wraps stands..;
Boston - NO Tobacco Products Sold - Pharmacies/College Campuses..;
Massachusetts cigarette tax jumps $1 per pack..;
Massachusetts (MA) Likely to Increase Tobacco tax..;
Massachusettes - Smoking ban drop in fatal heart attacks..;