I am by no means a mathematician but it
appears to me from these numbers that somebody is not being truthful
when engaging in public testimony and lobbying for legislation.
689,179,812 = Total 2002
Alaskan Medicaid expenditures according to Kaiser Health Foundation.
60,000,000= Total state
Medicaid program smoking costs each year according to tobacco free kids
web site.
26%
Adult
Cigarette Smoking Rate for Total Population, 2001 (H.J Kaiser Health
Foundation)
74% Adult Non-Smoking Rate for Total
Population,2001
If
anything, these numbers show the opposite of what we are led to
believe as “Fact”.
If I am
calculating correctly, smoking related illness actually costs us
LESS per person than non-smoking. Please correct me if I am wrong.
If 26%
of people smoke yet LESS THAN 10% of costs are smoking related, does
that not mean that the other 90% is spent on people that DO NOT
SMOKE or are NOT SMOKING related?
Even if you use the made up figure (that can not be
backed up by fact) of 146,000,000, that’s still LESS THAN 25%.
So if these numbers are true, Non-smoking costs us
629,000,000 for NON-SMOKING related illness or about $968 each
person assuming 650,000 Alaska residents.
650,000
residents divided by 26% = 169,000 Smokers
60,000,000 divided by 169,000 smokers =$355 per
smoker
Alaskan Smokers Paid:
24,251,000= 2003 tobacco
settlement dollars
40,400,000= 2002 State
tobacco tax revenue (I do not have the 2003 numbers but I’ll assume
it’s close to this)
64,651,000= Total revenue
paid by smokers or $382 per smoker.
As you can see the cost $355 per
smoker is LESS than the $382 that each smoker pays.
Looks to me that smokers actually made the
State nearly $5,000,000. So who is telling the truth?
Why are we trying to raise tobacco tax again? If smokers cost us 60
million and smoke about 35,000,000 packs of cigarettes a year, isn't
that about $1.70 per pack? Where does this "it costs us $6.00 per
pack" "fact" come from? Smokers already cover their expense in
current taxes and settlement dollars. Smokers already pay about
$1.84 per pack...again greater than the cost to the State of Alaska.
This tax is not justified. This bad legislation is not based on
truth and will unfairly tax 26% of Alaskans and possibly make
criminals out of some of them.
Sources:
Kaiser Family Foundation “State Health
Facts”
http://www.statehealthfacts.kff.org/cgi-bin/healthfacts.cgi?
Alaska Tobacco Free Kids “Tobacco Tax
Facts”
http://aktobaccofreekids.org/Tax%20Facts.htm
The message above and other services are provided free of charge through the
generous support of donated staff time and monetary contributions. If
you agree with our project please consider a donation in one form or another.
Alaska Voters Organization, Inc. is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit corporation and in
most cases your donations of cash or in kind are 100% tax deductible.
Secure electronic transfers
from your bank account or credit card are available using the PayPal
button above. If you prefer to send a check, bank
draft, or money order, please make them payable to the Alaska Voters
Organization; and mail to PO Box 3293; Kenai, Alaska;
99611-3293.
Please
contact our office with
any questions or comments.
Return to Editorial Index Page
