Helping smokers quit improves health and budgets

(1) Treatment of smoking-related illnesses accounts for about 11 percent of Medicaid expenditures. (2) As of 2014, seven states provide comprehensive tobacco-cessation coverage to Medicaid enrollees, including individual counseling, group counseling, and seven types of U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved medications. (3) Without assistance from medication or other forms of help, around 4 percent to 7 percent of quit attempts are successful; with tobacco-cessation medication use, the success rate is 25 percent.