Great American Smokeout - new plan wants more access to 'stop smoking' programs

November 20, 9:30 AMBusiness ExaminerDarrell Proctor

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About 20 percent of Americans use tobacco.

The Great American Smokeout earlier this month brought attention to a plan released just days before by businesses and health companies that is designed to give all smokers and other tobacco users access to programs to help them quit their nicotine habits by 2020.

The plan's proponents include two former U.S. surgeons general, three former secretaries of Health and Human Services, and nearly two dozen others. They want insurance companies and employers, and Medicaid and Medicare, to provide more benefits to those who want to end their tobacco use.

The plan was authored by the National Working Group for Access to Cessation Treatment for Tobacco in our Nation.

The American Lung Association notes that only seven states offer comprehensive "cessation" benefits. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines "comprehensive" coverage as at least four 30-minute counseling sessions, two chances to quit per year, and coverage for all seven FDA-approved drugs for nicotine addiction. (Visit the CDC's "Quit Smoking" page here.)

But some of the program's backers admit getting people to stop using tobacco is never easy. The government's hotline (1-800-QUIT-NOW) is available across the country, but only about 1 percent of smokers have ever called it, according to the North American Quitline Consortium.

And Hewitt Associates, a human-resources consulting firm, said it surveyed 248 companies in September about what health benefits they offered and how often the services were used. While more than half (54 percent) of the companies surveyed have smoking cessation programs, fewer than 5 percent of eligible workers have participated, according to Hewitt.

The survey also said that most of the employers were not satisfied with the programs' results.