ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To examine the current-period cost of treating 4 major smoking-related diseases: lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, ischemic heart disease, and cerebrovascular disease. METHODS: Analyses are based on the MarketScan database, a medical claims database from large employers. RESULTS: We found that total expenditures to treat ischemic heart disease were highest, followed by those to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). When median expenditures per claim and disease severity were considered, lung cancer was the most expensive condition to treat and ischemic heart disease the least expensive. Median treatment expenditures increased as the severity of disease increased. CONCLUSION: Treating smoking-related diseases is costly in the current-period and over a lifetime.
Subject(s)
Cerebrovascular Disorders/economics , Cost of Illness , Health Expenditures/statistics & numerical data , Lung Neoplasms/economics , Myocardial Ischemia/economics , Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive/economics , Smoking/adverse effects , Smoking/economics , Cerebrovascular Disorders/epidemiology , Cerebrovascular Disorders/therapy , Databases, Factual , Drug Therapy/economics , Humans , Incidence , Insurance Claim Review , International Classification of Diseases , Lung Neoplasms/epidemiology , Lung Neoplasms/therapy , Myocardial Ischemia/epidemiology , Myocardial Ischemia/therapy , Prevalence , Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive/epidemiology , Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive/therapy , Smoking/epidemiology , United States/epidemiologyABSTRACT
Cigarette smoking continues to be a leading cause of death in the United States, imposing substantial measurable costs to society. Smoking killed over 440,000 people in the United States each year during the period 1995-1999. If current smoking trends continue, over 5 million people currently younger than 18 will die prematurely from tobacco-related diseases. Increases in excise taxes have been shown to be effective in reducing smoking among youth. However, the adoption of tax increases in any jurisdiction is susceptible to many challenges. Furthermore, smuggling of tobacco products and sales of tobacco products over the Internet threaten the effectiveness of tobacco tax increases. This article discusses the effectiveness of excise tax increases on prevention and reduction of smoking. It also discusses factors that influence the legislative adoption of such increases. Finally, it examines potential threats to the use of tobacco taxes as a prevention tool.
