State Medicaid Expansion Tobacco Cessation Coverage and Number of Adult Smokers Enrolled in Expansion Coverage - United States, 2016

• Published in: MMWR. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report Vol. 65; no. 48; p. 1364
• Main Authors: DiGiulio, Anne, Haddix, Meredith, Jump, Zach, Babb, Stephen, Schecter, Anna, Williams, Kisha-Ann S, Asman, Kat, Armour, Brian S
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Atlanta U.S. Center for Disease Control 09-12-2016
• Subjects: Adults; Counseling; Disease; Enrollments; Estimates; Expansion; FDA approval; Government agencies; Handbooks; Health care policy; Medicaid; Medicare; Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act 2010-US; Population; Public assistance programs; Smoking cessation; State government; Tobacco; Washington DC
• ISSN: 0149-2195; 1545-861X

Medicaid enrollees smoke cigarettes at a higher rate than do privately insured U.S. residents. States that expand Medicaid eligibility are able to extend coverage to large numbers of adult smokers who are not eligible for traditional Medicaid cessation coverage, thereby substantially increasing the potential impact of Medicaid cessation coverage. By expanding Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act, 32 states have extended Medicaid cessation coverage to about 2.3 million adult smokers who were not previously eligible for Medicaid. All 32 of these states covered some cessation treatments for all Medicaid expansion enrollees. Nine states covered all nine cessation treatments considered in this study for all Medicaid expansion enrollees, and 19 states covered all seven FDA-approved cessation medications for all enrollees. States that have expanded Medicaid can take further steps to help smokers quit by covering proven cessation treatments more fully, removing barriers to accessing covered treatments, making Medicaid enrollees and their health care providers aware of these treatments, and monitoring use of these treatments.