With looming cigarette tax, health departments double down on anti-smoking campaigns
OKLAHOMA CITY (KOKH) — Smokers, it's time to prepare. The state cigarette tax per pack will increase by a dollar beginning July 1.
As a result, state health officials are pulling out all the stops to help you quit. Oklahoma's Tobacco Prevention and Control Program is working to reduce healthcare costs and eliminate barriers to help smokers quit for good.
It’s doing this by eliminating co-payments for treatment or limits on the number of quit attempts covered by insurance, integrating cessation treatments into routine care for Medicaid patients, and screening all clients for tobacco use at county health departments. This in all in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which gave the state $1.3 million for tobacco prevention and control activities in FY 2017.
The CDC has also rolled out a new tobacco education campaign profiling real people who are living with serious long-term health effects due to smoking. Rebecca Cox-Macdonald is a former campaign participant. Macdonald has smoked for nearly 40 years and tried to quit a half-dozen times before finally breaking the habit.
"I traded an unhealthy addiction for a healthy addiction,” Macdonald said. “I started running and I started running for 5K's and just my diet and using meditation...Just doing everything I could to get on the healthy side of life."
Macdonald offers five tips for quitting successfully
- Find someone or something that inspires you.
- Set a quit date.
- Have a good support system.
- Tobacco proof your life
- Use nicotine replacement therapies
For those interested in quitting, call 1-800-QUITNOW or visit the Oklahoma Tobacco Helpline.