A Republican state senator has introduced a bill that would phase out publicly funded health care treatment for tobacco- related head, neck and lung cancer.
Sen. Ron Teck of Grand Junction said he drafted Senate Bill 101 because soaring health care costs mean the state cannot continue to pay for everyone’s health needs.
“It seems that you eliminate the folks that are making a conscious decision that creates negative consequences,” Teck said. Smokers’ “friends and neighbors should not have to pay for their medical costs.”
But Teck’s proposal has raised concerns for the Colorado Health and Hospital Association. The group will take a formal position on the bill today, said spokeswoman Marty Arizumi.
“Our concerns are that people are going to continue to engage in that behavior and we’re still going to have to treat them, so it’s just a burden to the hospitals. And ultimately, that burden goes back to the public” through cost-shifting, she said.
Under the legislation, smokers and other tobacco users with a tobacco-related illness would lose a certain percentage of their Medicaid treatment benefits depending on when they started their tobacco use.
Smokers who started later would lose more of their benefit – the rate increases by 5 percent every year after 1976.
For example, a smoker who started in 1976 would lose 5 percent of benefits. A smoker who started in 1979 would lose 20 percent of benefits, while a smoker who started in 1995 would lose all benefits.
Smokers who picked up the habit in or before 1975 would still receive full benefits. Teck said he picked 1975 because those who started smoking before then would be too old to derive much health benefit from quitting.
Dr. Paul Bunn, the director of the University of Colorado Cancer Center, said 99 percent of head, neck and lung cancers found in smokers are caused by cigarettes.
Teck said he is waiting for legislative staffers to complete a cost-savings analysis of the program.
The Department of Health Care Policy and Financing is opposing the bill because even though care would go down incrementally for smokers, they still remain Medicaid patients, said spokeswoman Rhonda Bentz.
The bill would also slash payments to doctors who provide treatment and create administrative challenges for the department, she said.
Teck said he is not anti-smoking. In fact, he said he will vote against a proposal banning smoking in most public places if it comes to the Senate.
But, he said, if people are going to choose to smoke, taxpayers should not have to foot the bill.
Staff writer Chris Frates can be reached at cfrates@denverpost.com or 303-820-1633.
