My Strong Medicine » smoking

Charging a Tax on the obese, smokers?

Sean — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 10:18:28 +0000

I for one think this is bold. It’s no secret how I feel about smoking and the non-compliant diabetic or obese individual. Not to mention the strain it puts on the health care system, since most, if not all of these morbidities are preventable (to some degree) and ALL are treatable.
Treatable, meaning to lessen the ‘effects’ on the health care system.
You are not born obese, not are you born with a cigarette in your mouth. Diabetes can be inherited, but once again is very manageable and treatable.
So, yeah – I think this ‘tax’ just might ‘wake’ some people up.

Amplify’d from news.yahoo.com

Arizona Medicaid considers tax on smokers, obese

PHOENIX – Arizona’s cash-strapped Medicaid program is considering charging patients $50 a year if they smoke, have diabetes or are overweight. A spokeswoman for the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System said Friday that the fee is intended to rein in health care costs by pushing patients to keep themselves healthy.

“It engages the consumer to start having a greater awareness of how they fit into the bigger health care puzzle,” said Monica Coury, spokeswoman for AHCCCS. “We want to be able to provide health care to people. And we want to stretch our dollars as far as we can. Part of that is engaging people to take better care of themselves.”

Some private employers and state governments have instituted higher insurance premiums for workers who are overweight or smoke, but Arizona’s plan would mark the first time a state-federal health care program for low-income residents has charged people for unhealthy lifestyles.

The fee would apply only to certain childless adults.

One part of the proposal affects people with diabetes. Coury says diabetics who fail to follow their doctor’s orders to lose weight would be subjected to the $50 charge.

Democratic state Sen. Kyrsten Sinema said that isn’t fair to diabetics.

“This would fine people with medical conditions beyond their own power and control,” Sinema said. “I just don’t think it’s fair to vilify someone with diabetes.”

People who are obese or chronically ill, and those who smoke, would need to work with a primary-care physician to develop a plan to help them lose weight and otherwise improve their health. Patients who don’t meet specified goals would be required to pay the $50 under the proposal.

The plan requires approval by the Republican-controlled Legislature, which has been considering $500 million of cuts to Arizona’s Medicaid program to help eliminate a state budget deficit of nearly $1.5 billion.

A fee for Medicaid patients also would need federal authorization, and federal rules could prevent Arizona from enforcing the fee.

Coury says the $50 fee is a way of showing the federal government Arizona is serious about getting people healthy while stretching and managing dollars better.

“Part of that requires that we engage the consumer in active, healthy behaviors.”

Read more at news.yahoo.com

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Filed under: random Tagged: arizona medicaid, diabetes, health care, obese, smoking

Captain Obvious vs. Smoking

Sean — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 14:52:42 +0000

I still can’t quite understand how some will continue to partake in an act/habit that has known deathly effects?
When will the ‘light bulb’ turn on?
Is the habit itself worth a life???

Amplify’d from news.yahoo.com

Surgeon general: 1 cigarette is 1 too many

WASHINGTON – Think the occasional cigarette won’t hurt? Even a bit of social smoking — or inhaling someone else’s secondhand smoke — could be enough to block your arteries and trigger a heart attack, says the newest surgeon general’s report on the killer the nation just can’t kick.

“That one puff on that cigarette could be the one that causes your heart attack,” said Surgeon General Regina Benjamin.

Or the one that triggers someone else’s: “I advise people to try to avoid being around smoking any way that you can,” she said.

“How many reports more does Congress need to have to say that cigarettes as a class of products ought to be banned?” asked well-known nicotine expert Dr. K. Michael Cummings of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, who helped to review the report. “One-third of the patients who are in our hospital are here today because of cigarettes.”

Still, this newest report is unusual because it devotes more than 700 pages to detail the biology of how cigarette smoke accomplishes its dirty deeds — including the latest genetic findings to help explain why some people become more addicted than others, and why some smokers develop tobacco-caused disease faster than others.

There is no safe level of exposure to cigarette smoke, whether you deliberately inhale it or are a nonsmoker who breathes in other people’s fumes, the report concludes. Nor is there evidence yet to tell if efforts to develop so-called safer cigarettes really will pan out.

But more recently it’s become clear that some of the harms — especially those involving the heart — kick in right away, said Dr. Terry Pechacek of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Too often people think the occasional social cigarette is not so dangerous, when in fact this report says yes, it is,” he said.

Why? Cigarette smoke immediately seeps into the bloodstream and changes its chemistry so that it becomes more sticky, allowing clots to form that can squeeze shut already narrowed arteries, the report explains. That’s in addition to the more subtle long-term damage to blood vessels themselves, making them more narrow. And no one knows how little it takes to trigger that clotting.

Kicking the habit lets your body start healing, Benjamin stressed: “It’s never too late to quit but the sooner you quit the better. Even if you’re 70, 80 years old and you’re a smoker, there’s still benefit from quitting.”

Read more at news.yahoo.com

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Filed under: random Tagged: smoking

Obesity’s Threat Now As Severe As Smoking

Sean — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 13:58:37 +0000

the overall health burden of obesity has increased consistently since 1993, while smoking rates have fallen. So obesity has become "an equal, if not greater, contributor to the burden of disease as smoking

Medical News: Obesity Disease Burden Similar to Smoking – in Primary Care, Obesity from MedPage Today

I don’t know about you, but isn’t it time we start paying attention?

Obesity isn’t going away – nor will it go away easily.

Posted in Uncategorized Tagged: disease, obesity, smoking

A Smoking Vaccine?

Sean — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:24:43 +0000

Image Source: British Council.org

NicVAX is designed to stimulate the immune system to generate antibodies that latch on to nicotine in a smoker’s body and actually prevent nicotine from ever entering the brain. The testing began last week

Trial drug may help smokers kick butts – CNN.com

Hmm.. A vaccine being developed to help stop smoking? Sound a little sci-fi’ish if you ask me, but I also think it might be the next best thing.

It’s no secret how I feel about smoking. Just take a look here, here, here, here, here, here and here. (By the way.. I had no idea I had blogged so much about this subject)

I think this new vaccine brings possibility to those smokers who have wanted to quit, have tried everything, but still fall victim to this slave-like addiction. Maybe, just maybe this could help them.. and in effect help us by eliminating the smoke world-wide.

I’ll be interested to see how this develops.

Posted in fitness, opinion Tagged: smoking

Smoking Soldiers No More?

Sean — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 14:19:16 +0000

Study recommends total ban on smoking for soldiers – CNN.com.

This is a tough one.

How can we tell a soldier after being up for 20-some hours on duty protecting that which we treasure most they can’t have a cigarette?

That nicotine probably keeps him/her up long enough to endure. Maybe not a cigarette. It could be a chew of tobacco. Have you ever stood post for a 24hr period. Lives are in your hands?

Yep, I’m a huge non-smoking advocate

But, this is a difficult pill to swallow.

Hmm…

Carpe Diem

Tagged: military, non-smoking, smoking

Smoking… Stop-Smoking Drugs Become More Dangerous

Sean — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:52:29 +0000

FDA: Stop-smoking drugs Chantix, Zyban must carry suicide warning – USATODAY.com.

A double whammy. Now, not only does the habit itself cause mortal damage to your body, but some of the drugs that help you stop the filthy habit have a set of their own possible life-threatening damages. This time in the form of suicidal tendencies.

I continue to revisit the same theme: Smoking – Tell me something good about it?

Carpe Diem

Posted in Uncategorized Tagged: medication, smoking

No Smoking In The House

Sean — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 09:54:56 +0000

Man allegedly drenches wife with hose for smoking – Yahoo! News.

OK.. this was funny and not so funny. I had to chuckle. What would you do if someone was smoking in your house?

Posted in humor Tagged: anti-smoking, smoking

Just Load The Gun… It's Quicker

Sean — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 22:39:30 +0000

via izismile.com

Courtesy of izismile.com
Did I mention my passionate dislike of anything related to smoking?

Posted in random Tagged: anti-smoking, smoking

How To Deter Smoking?

Sean — Sat, 30 May 2009 14:34:43 +0000

Shocking images deter cigarette smokers: WHO – Yahoo! News

Cigarette packages should show graphic images of yellow teeth, blackened gums, protruding neck tumors and bleeding brains to alert smokers to their disease risks, the World Health Organization said on Friday.

How is this a BAD idea?

Really?

Carpe Diem

Tagged: smoking

Smoking… It's a Killer

Sean — Sat, 23 May 2009 00:37:07 +0000

via izismile.com

It’s no secret how much I HATE smoking.
These pictures do a great job at subliminal messages.
Courtesy of izismile.com

Posted in Uncategorized Tagged: anti-smoking, smoking