Alabama House of Representatives passed the 2013 Fiscal Budget with 38% cut in Medicaid Agency which will be devastating to the young patients who depend on the Medicaid program for health care. A $1 per pack excise tax on cigarettes would help alleviate the cut in Medicaid.

MONTGOMERY—The Fiscal Year 2013 General Fund budget passed the Alabama House of Representatives on Tuesday with an unprecedented 38 percent cut to the Alabama Medicaid Agency, an agency that provides health care coverage for more than 900,000 Alabamians. These cuts are poised to threaten access and ultimately drive up healthcare costs for ALL of our citizens by:

- eliminating prescription drug coverage for more than 185,000 adults;

- closing community pharmacies, especially in rural areas;

- eliminating kidney dialysis coverage for adults;

- jeopardizing critical care transport for children;

- eliminating hospice and home care services, which will result in lengthier hospital stays;

- threatening access to primary and specialty care providers for both children and adults; and

- crowding already overburdened emergency rooms.

As healthcare organizations in the state of Alabama, we join to:

1) urge our state lawmakers to consider the devastating effects these cuts will have on the lives on thousands of Alabamians and to find a way to generate additional revenue to protect this vital program;

2) strongly encourage increasing Alabama’s tobacco excise tax by at least $1 per pack of cigarettes and earmarking the proceeds for direct patient care within the Medicaid Agency. According to public health statistics, this $1 increase would generate more than $212 million, keep 34,200 children from becoming addicted smokers, and save 20,000 lives from premature smoking-related deaths.

This weekend, physicians from all over the state will come together at the Medical Association of the State of Alabama’s (MASA) Annual Session in Birmingham to take a stand against tobacco use. At a time when Alabama is struggling to fund its health care system, we simply cannot ignore the tremendous impact tobacco use has on the health of our citizens and the cost of providing care to them.

“We must recognize the additional costs tobacco use adds to Alabama’s health care system,” Jeff Terry, MD,  president of MASA, said. “Alabama has one of the lowest tax rates per-pack of cigarettes in the country, yet tobacco use and second-hand smoke greatly increase our state’s health care costs. Tobacco is a fire that robs us individually of our health and collectively of precious state resources. It’s time tobacco paid its fair share.”

The undersigned organizations appeal to our state lawmakers to pass this increase to not only protect the state’s health care safety net, but also to invest in the health of all Alabamians.

Medical Association of the State of Alabama, Alabama Hospital Association, Alabama Academy of Family Physicians, Alabama Orthopaedic Society, Alabama Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, Alabama Primary Health Care Association, Alabama Academy of Radiology, Alabama Rural Health Association, Alabama Cancer Congress, Alabama Section, ACOG, Alabama Chapter-American Academy of Pediatrics, Alabama Society of OTO, Head and Neck Surgery, Alabama Chapter of the American College of Cardiology, American Cancer Society,  Alabama Chapter, American College of Physicians,  American Heart Association, Alabama Dental Association, Neurosurgical Society of Alabama.