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Save New York's Tobacco Prevention Program

New York's Tobacco Use Prevention Control Program (TCP) has proven effective in cutting teen and adult smoking rates. This is a program that works and is helping people across the state overcome their addictions to nicotine and tobacco.

Thanks to the advocacy of the American Cancer Society and other agencies, in the 2010 – 11 Fiscal Year New York State increased the TCP’s funding by about three million dollars to $58.4 million. This reverses two years of declining support, but is still well below the 2007 – 08 budget of $85.5 million.

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Further Budget Cuts Threaten the Viability of New York’s Highly Successful Tobacco Prevention Program

Free nicotine patch kits distributed - Down 36 percent
Hard-hitting TV ads – Cut by one-third
Efforts to help Medicaid clients to quit – eliminated

Is this any way to win the war against tobacco?

Tobacco is the number one cause of death in New York, killing more than 25,000 people annually. There are 570,000 New Yorkers living with tobacco-caused disease, many of them chronically disabled. Annual health care costs in New York caused by smoking exceed $8 billion, of which Medicaid pays $5.4 billion. The average New York household pays $900 per year in state and federal taxes attributable to tobacco’s health impact.

Tobacco use rates in New York have been falling faster than the rest of the country. Hundreds of thousands of smokers have quit and thousands of kids have chosen to reject tobacco. Adult smoking is down 22% and teen smoking has dropped by 40% since New York launched the Health Department’s Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Program in 2000. The result is a healthier population and lower health care costs now and in the future. But despite the progress made in recent years, 2.5 million New Yorkers still smoke – the battle is far from won.

Despite its successful record and the remaining challenges, the TCP’s funding was reduced 35% in recent years (from $85.5 million in FY 07 – 08 to $55 million in FY 09 – 10). The magnitude of this reduction far exceeds that suffered by most state programs in a period of fiscal austerity and is greatly in excess of “across the board” budget cuts applied since the beginning of the fiscal crisis.

How have these budget reductions impacted efforts to reduce tobacco use?

• Anti-smoking messages in the media have been reduced by one-third, followed by a 26% decline in awareness among smokers.
• Using the nicotine patch while quitting doubles the chances of success. The number of free and low-cost patch “starter kits” distributed to income-eligible smokers has been cut 400,000 to 255,000.
• Funding for community-based programs has been cut 20%.
• An enhanced services program for Medicaid and uninsured smokers who want to quit has been eliminated.

Further cuts to the TCP budget will lead to:

• Reduced hours and services by the statewide Smokers’ Quitline, which has been receiving an average of 22,300 calls per month.
• Distribution of nicotine patches will be further curtailed.
• Community-based programs may be cut yet again and, in some cases, eliminated.

New York’s most recent budget has stopped the bleeding, but we need to restore, and even increase the TCP budget to its optimal level. The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention in its publication, Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs (2007), recommends New York spend $254.3 million a year on tobacco prevention efforts. While such a spending level is not practical in the foreseeable future, even modest increases would go a long way towards restoring the TCP’s effectiveness and cutting into the smoking rate.

Inadequately supporting the Tobacco Prevention and Control Program, even in tough fiscal times, is penny-wise and pound-foolish. The Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids estimates that reductions in program effectiveness due to previous budget cuts will result in an additional 16,000 New York kids becoming smokers. Lowering the prevalence of smoking is one of the fastest and most cost-efficient ways to reduce the burden of health care costs. And it does so by making people healthier, not by reducing benefits.

The battle is not won. Every day Big Tobacco is working to sell more cigarettes and recruit new smokers. Hard fought gains can be lost.The American Cancer Society remains vigilant against further threats to the Tobacco Control Program and will continue to advocate for restoration of the support it needs. Let your representative in Albany know you think it’s important that New York continue to support this important initiative.

Important Documents and Links:
New York TCP’s strategic plan for reducing tobacco use here
Visit the NYS Smoker's Quitline here
See this editorial from the May 11 Syracuse Post-Standard