Jump to full article: The Oregonian, 2009-06-27
Author: Doug Bates, The Oregonian
Intro: The truth is that precious few smokers can quit without help. And that's where our society continues to have a massive blind spot. Tobacco-caused disease has become the nation's leading preventable cause of death, killing more than 400,000 Americans every year, yet our health care system and federal government do next to nothing to help smokers who want to quit but can't conquer their cruel addiction.
Historically, nicotine addiction has been one of the most difficult of all drug addictions to break. . . .
Oregon ranks among the worst states at breaking this promise. . . .
Obama could do more -- much, much more.
I'd like to see him enroll, very publicly, in a smoking cessation program. He could speak up about his struggle and demonstrate to the nation that even a strong, savvy person often needs help breaking the addiction.
Obama could also lead the way on ramping up spending on help for smokers who want to quit. States should be held to their early promises, and health insurers should be required to cover cessation programs.
Years ago, if my struggling father could have had a few hundred bucks worth of physician-supervised cessation treatment -- something he could not afford on his own -- it could have saved tens of thousands of dollars in surgeries and cancer treatment.
Even better, he'd still be here today.
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