Government
Cigarette tax boost for SCHIP?
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted March 19, 2007
Sen. Gordon Smith (R, Ore.) on Feb. 28 proposed expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program by raising the federal tax on a pack of cigarettes. Smith cited a Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids estimate that a 60-cent increase would raise $46.5 billion over five years. Smith would use that funding to expand SCHIP to cover all pregnant women and children in families earning up to 300% of the federal poverty line.
Smith said he rarely supports tax increases but that SCHIP was a just cause. The last federal cigarette tax increase was five cents on Jan. 1, 2002, bringing the tax to 39 cents.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2007/03/19/gvbf0319.htm.