Smoking reform in Massachusetts, and more

last updated 8 January 2015

Smoking reform in Massachusetts

Smoking has plunged 26 percent among lower-income smokers in Massachusetts, after just two years of an unusual state program targeting tobacco use. Patients enrolled in the state’s MassHealth insurance program receive free counseling and medications to help them stop smoking. Anti-smoking advocates said the results suggest that expanding the Massachusetts program nationwide could save tens of thousands of lives. “These findings are extraordinary,” said Matthew Myers of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. “They have major public-health implications as Congress is debating health-care reform.”

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