Bills would force insurers to cover quit-smoking drugs

SAVE YOUR LIFE NOW! GRAB YOUR HOW TO QUIT SMOKING IN A WEEK FLAT BOOK NOW! In the last two months, the average price of a pack of cigarettes in Rhode Island has jumped nearly $2, to $8.35, thanks to increases in federal and state excise taxes.

That means a pack-a-day habit costs about $250 a month, or about $3,000 a year, especially sobering figures at a time of double-digit unemployment.

The sting of the cost increase has prompted many people to try quitting. In the family practice of Dr. Albert J. Puerini of Cranston, for example, the number of requests for smoking cessation materials has doubled since April.

Now the General Assembly is poised to give additional help to those struggling with nicotine withdrawal. Companion bills apparently headed for passage would require insurance carriers to extend mandated insurance coverage of smoking cessation drugs.

Until now, health insurers have been required to cover nicotine replacement medications. But other drugs, particularly one with a comparatively high success rate, have fallen outside the mandate because they do not depend on nicotine replacement.

Chantix, which blocks nicotine receptors in the brain, has a reported success rate of 40 to 50 percent, twice as high as nicotine replacement medications such as gum, skin patches, lozenges and nasal spray, Puerini said, although patients also need continuing support to achieve success.Wellbutrin, an antidepressant, also has had marked success as a smoking cessation medication. Neither Chantix nor Wellbutrin is part of the mandated coverage.

Legislation sponsored by Rep. Thomas C. Slater and Sen. Rhoda E. Perry, both Providence Democrats, would require insurers to include all cessation medications approved by the Food and Drug Administration, regardless of how they work. The bills also would increase the amount of counseling health insurers must cover, from 8 to 16 half-hour sessions.

Slater’s bill has passed the House. His bill and Perry’s are both to be heard Wednesday by the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services.

Both Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island and United Healthcare support the expanded coverage, with their respective spokeswomen saying it would be cost-effective in the long run.

Said United Healthcare’s Deborah Spano, “We believe that we won’t be paying as much for bronchitis, colds, asthma, or lung disease. Is it a one-for-one today? No, but we will realize it pretty quickly on the smaller items.”

The American Cancer Society estimates that Americans spend $506 million a year to treat smoking-related health problems, and Medicaid shells out an additional $179 million, said society volunteer Cheryl McKenney, of Smithfield.

McKenney said she has watched helplessly as her 76-year-old mother tried repeatedly to quit smoking, succeeding only when she was hospitalized. Her mother now requires supplemental oxygen 24 hours a day, and her quality of life is “not what I would have hoped,” she said.

Dr. Athena Poppas, a cardiologist at Rhode Island Hospital, says she welcomes every bit of support for her patients, some of whom cannot shake free of nicotine, even after they have had suffered heart attacks or undergone angioplasty.

“It’s hard for us,” she said, to see some people who cannot afford their regular cardiac medications, “and are still buying the cigarettes.”

“It’s a mark of how powerful an addiction it is,” said Poppas.

Poppas and other practitioners agree that the recent price hikes have motivated more die-hard smokers to try quitting.

“People are coming in and saying, ‘I can’t afford this any more,’ ” Puerini said.

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