Dear Editor:
The burden of tobacco continues to weigh heavily on Indiana, accounting each year for 11,000 premature deaths, $2.8 billion in lost productivity, and $3.3 billion dollars in healthcare costs. Indiana’s state Medicaid program bears nearly $540 million of that cost, which means Hoosier families face an unnecessary combined annual state and federal tax burden of $1,125 per household.
We urge lawmakers to support a minimum $2 increase in the cigarette tax. An October 2018 report from the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation estimates such an increase would result in the prevention of 58,000 youth from becoming adult smokers and give 70,000 Indiana residents the additional motivation to quit tobacco for good. A $2 per pack increase would also generate an increase of $358 million in tax revenue in the first year alone. We support the use of this additional revenue source to be spent for underfunded healthcare needs in Indiana including tobacco control, opioid addiction and the state’s Healthy Indiana Plan 2.0.
When we ask our patients who have successfully quit tobacco what motivated them to quit, the most often reason we hear is “Cigarettes got too expensive.” Research we have conducted at the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center is the first to show a link between rising tobacco prices and decreasing lung cancer deaths in Indiana.
Despite these findings, Indiana continues to have one of the lowest state cigarette taxes in the nation at 99.5 cents per pack compared to the national average of $1.71. Consequently, Indiana has one of the top 10 highest percentages of adults who smoke and lung cancer death rates in the nation. This past summer, Kentucky voted to increase their state excise tax to $1.10 per pack, making Indiana’s cigarette tax the lowest out of any of our neighboring Midwest states.
It is time for Indiana to become a leader in the fight against the tobacco epidemic. Raising the state tobacco tax will support Governor Holcomb’s focus on a higher quality of life in Indiana through a healthier and more productive population. We can no longer afford to pay the cost of Hoosier lives lost too soon.
Dr. Ryan Nguyen
Resident Physician
Indiana University School of Medicine
Dr. Nasser Hanna
Tom and Julie Wood Family Foundation Professor of Lung Cancer Clinical Research
Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center
Dr. Patrick Loehrer
Director and H. H. Gregg Professor of Oncology
Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center