Increase Federal Tobacco Taxes
One of the few methods proven to effectively reduce tobacco use around the world—in both developed and developing countries, in men and women, and across age groups—is raising excise taxes. Raising excise taxes affects not only the number of cigarettes a person smokes but smoking prevalence as well. In addition, recent studies have shown that increasing cigarette prices increases the probability that current adult smokers will attempt to quit smoking and that young adult smokers will successfully quit smoking [1]. Raising federal excise taxes not only reduce smoking rates, but also provide additional funds for tobacco control programs.
Case Study: A Federal Tax Increase on Cigarettes
In September 2007, Congressional Democrats first proposed to pay for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) by raising federal tobacco taxes to a total of $1.00 per pack. In support of this proposal, national and state tobacco coalitions and voluntary health organizations such as the American Heart Association, the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, and the American Cancer Society’s advocacy arm, Cancer Action Network (ACSCAN), as well as state anti-tobacco coalitions joined with children’s advocacy groups such as Save the Children and Families USA to advocate for the bill.
Children’s health is a popular issue in our country, particularly among lawmakers, and tax increases are not popular at all. Anti-tobacco advocates supported attaching the cigarette tax to what they considered a popular bill, the SCHIP bill, in order to make it more palatable to Congress. In addition, a tobacco tax increase could be viewed not only as a means of payment for children’s health services but also as a preventive measure since research shows that most smokers begin smoking in their teenage years. Since high cigarette taxes—and thus, the cost of cigarettes—are known to be associated with decreased purchases of cigarettes, a new tax suggests that thousands of potential teenage smokers are less likely to begin smoking. Of course, it can be a risky political move to tie federal tobacco taxes to funding a particular program since the tax becomes linked to the politics of that program as well as to tobacco.
Congress voted in favor of a cigarette tax increase twice in 2007, and both times the bill was vetoed by President George W. Bush. On February 4, 2009, President Barack Obama signed the Children’s Health Care Insurance Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA), which raised the federal tax on cigarettes by 61 cents [2]. This increase raised the federal tax to a total of $1.00 per pack [3]. The tax had not been increased nationally since 2002 when Congress raised it from 34 cents to 39 cents [4].
The 2009 tax increase on cigarettes was the culmination of a 15-year effort by a coalition of anti-tobacco organizations working together to achieve a higher federal tax on cigarettes. The anti-tobacco coalition’s success is a good example of how, in order to meet an objective, one coalition can unite a diverse group of agencies with various missions to collaborate on a single piece of legislation that includes benefits for all parties. However, the coalition’s work is not finished. The anti-tobacco advocates and children’s health coalition found what they consider to be a successful strategy that can be used again in 2013, when CHIPRA is up for reauthorization.
[1] Levy, D.T., Romano, E., & Mumford, E. (2005). The relationship of smoking cessation to sociodemographic characteristics, smoking intensity, and tobacco control policies. Nicotine & Tobacco Research 7(3) ,and Tauras, J.A. (2004). Public policy and smoking cessation among young adults in the United States Health Policy 68(3): 321-332.
[2] CHIPRA, H.R. 2, 2009. For an overview of the contents see, Sullivan, J. et al. Chipra 101: An overview of the CHIP Reauthorization Legislation, March 2009,www.familiesusa.org.
[3] The new tax is actually 61.66 cents which rounds to 62 cents.
[4] Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, January 13, 2009.
