It seems that Georgia’s HOPE scholarship and pre-k programs have now joined the growing list of priorities that are less important than a cheap pack of cigarettes in Georgia. With the proposal to eliminate over $300 million dollars in funding for the nationally recognized programs, HOPE and pre-k have joined the k-12 education community, prisons, court systems, medical providers and other important services as casualties of our budget writers’ dedication to protecting tobacco interests.
This is particularly conspicuous when you consider that tobacco is one of the largest drains on our budget.
At just 37 cents per pack, Georgia’s tax ranks 48th in the country, which nets the state about $200 million per year.
Yet Georgian taxpayers spend nearly $500 million per year treating tobacco-related disease through the state Medicaid program alone; a $300 million per year loss. I call that a Medicaid tax.
The state has determined that doctors who serve Medicaid patients should again be cut in the state budget, while cigarette costs again go unscathed. For perspective, just a one-cent per pack increase in the tobacco tax could pay for the latest medical provider rate cut proposal.
But even more important than the financial costs are the human costs. Every day I see the devastating toll that tobacco-related disease takes on families in my practice. I am a cancer doctor in a less affluent area of Georgia where lung cancer is significant, and continued access to quality health care and education is important to our diverse population.
I am also a conservative who opposes tax increases. But I would like to encourage my Republican colleagues to revisit some of our own conservative principles when considering the current protection of cheap cigarettes in the face of Georgia’s budget woes.
Personal responsibility: I may challenge someone’s judgment in taking up smoking, but I don’t challenge their right to do so. I do, however, challenge the notion that all taxpayers should have to foot the bill for the increased health care costs that this decision brings. If you want to smoke, then you should take personal responsibility for your increased health costs — one pack at a time through an increased cigarette tax.
Run government like a business: We often talk about trying to run Georgia more like a business. Georgia, through our Medicaid program, is in the insurance business. So how do free-market insurers like Blue Cross handle the increased risk of smokers? They raise their premiums so that the costs of smokers don’t have to be passed on to their nonsmoking policyholders. The riskier your behavior, the greater liability you pose; therefore, the higher your premium cost. All of us with teenagers driving accept this reality when we pay our auto insurance premiums. Raising Georgia’s tobacco tax is the state’s equivalent to this free-market principle.
Reducing the tax burden on Georgians: Georgia spends more than it takes in on tobacco. Around $300 million more in Medicaid alone. I believe that actions speak louder than words. If the endgame is to actually reduce the tax burden on Georgians, rather than just engaging in “no tax” platitudes, then this is smart math.
Our lawmakers continue to remind us of the “tough decisions” that we must make. Yet they refuse to even make the easy ones. Raising Georgia’s tobacco tax by $1 per pack would yield more than $400 million per year in new revenue by some estimates, and still leave us below the national average.
The proposed HOPE cuts save the state $300 million over a number of years. Is having the nation’s lowest cigarette tax really more important than the HOPE scholarship and pre-k? Would we rather furlough teachers and increase class sizes in order to keep cheap smokes? And are doctors and medical providers less important than a cheap pack of cigarettes?
My prescription for the budget writers: a strong dose of common sense.
Dr. Jose Tongol is an oncologist at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital’s Phoebe Cancer Center in Albany. He is the president of the Dougherty County Medical Society, the Georgia Society of Clinical Oncology and the Albany Marathon.
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