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Title : Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky calls for statewide smoking ban, pushing people to quit by raising tobacco tax $1 a pack
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Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky calls for statewide smoking ban, pushing people to quit by raising tobacco tax $1 a pack

Ben Chandler

Kentucky has "a rescue system" for sick people, not really a health-care system, and needs a statewide smoking ban and a big increase in its cigarette tax to prevent disease, Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky President Ben Chandler told a legislative committee Wednesday.

"The single most effective policy changes we can make to improve the health of Kentuckians are changes that will reduce our smoking rates and exposure to secondhand smoke," Chandler told the Interim Joint Committee on Health and Welfare. "Passing smoke-free laws and raising the tobacco tax by $1 or more per pack will help reduce smoking, save health care costs, and won't cost the state a dime."

Kentucky has a relatively low cigarette tax, 60 cents a pack, and the highest smoking rate in the nation, 26 percent of adults, as well as the highest death rate from cancer.

Critics of a tobacco-tax increase have said it would penalize lower-income people, who are more likely to smoke. Chandler said a big increase is needed to push them into quitting.

"You have to raise the tax by $1 or more to get the health benefits," he said. "Otherwise, it's just an added tax burden on the poor."

Chandler, a former congressman and state attorney general, told the House-Senate committee, "We have to focus on promoting policy changes that lead to healthier outcomes by addressing the things that cause poor health in the first place. . . . We now have a rescue system."

Appalachian Kentucky continues to be the least healthy region of the state, and the disparity is increasing, Chandler said.

"While all of Kentucky lags behind the nation as a whole, it's generally people living in more rural Eastern counties with more challenging health issues," he said. "The latest numbers show that the health disparities between Central Appalachia and the rest of the nation, or even the rest of Appalachia, are large. And they're continuing to grow." 

For example, he said the national death rate from heart disease "declined nearly 58 percent from 1980 to 2014, but not in Eastern Kentucky. In Owsley County, cardiovascular disease mortality actually increased over that 34-year period."

Another big Kentucky health problem is obesity. Chandler said, "Some of the evidence-based programs that help reduce obesity include making the healthy choice the easiest choice by replacing sugary drinks and snacks in school and government vending machines with healthier options, such as fruit and water; increasing the tax on sugary drinks; passing policies that require new streets to be walkable and bikeable; building sidewalks, walking trails, playgrounds and other places where residents can safely engage in physical activity; and adopting policies that enable farmers' markets to thrive."

A video of Chandler's testimony is on the KET website.

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