Contact: Damon Thompson
202-997-6125 or dthompson@prevent.org


WASHINGTON, Nov. 18, 2008 – Nearly two dozen of the nation’s business, labor, insurance, government and health care leaders – including three former Secretaries of Health and Human Services and two former Surgeons General – today endorsed a bold plan to provide every American with access to comprehensive tobacco cessation treatment services by the year 2020.

The National Working Group for ACTTION (Access to Cessation Treatment for Tobacco In Our Nation) unveiled the plan in a document entitled a “Call for ACTTION.”

“Ending tobacco addiction is crucial to our nation’s health and its economic well-being,” said John M. Clymer, president of Partnership for Prevention, a nonprofit organization that coordinated the working group’s efforts. “But while 70 percent of the nation’s smokers say they want to quit, only 30 percent of them are using proven cessation techniques, and only 1 in 50 employers currently provide workers with any cessation treatment coverage.”

The plan unveiled today calls for immediate, systemic and lasting action in key areas identified in recent reports issued by the CDC, the Institute of Medicine, and the U.S. Public Health Service. Those reports cited three vital areas where the country should take action to improve access to comprehensive treatment:

·         Insurance Coverage: Provide comprehensive first-dollar coverage for tobacco use treatment under all public and private insurance.

·         Quitlines: Increase funding for state quitline infrastructure and promotion and provide incentives for quality improvement efforts.

·         Healthcare systems: Institutionalize the routine treatment of tobacco use in all out-patient and in-patient service delivery.

A detailed listing of all the recommendations in these three areas is available online at http://www.acttiontoquit.org.

“There are many steps to a comprehensive program: first of all, providers need to remind patients that it’s important to stop smoking and insurers must pay for comprehensive cessation benefits,” said Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which helped sponsor the working group and endorsed the plan.

The call was also endorsed by former HHS Secretaries Tommy Thompson, Donna Shalala and Richard Schweiker, as well as former Surgeons General Richard H. Carmona and Joycelyn Elders. In addition to Gerberding, current government officials endorsing the call included Judy Monroe, Indiana’s state health commissioner and president of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials; Nathanial Cobb, tobacco control chair at the Indian Health Service; and John Niederhuber, director of the National Cancer Institute

Private-sector endorsements came from the National Business Group on Health, the Automotive Industry Action Group, the Service Employees International Union, United Health Group, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, ClearWay of Minnesota, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Canyon Ranch Institute, Partnership for Prevention, the American Legacy Foundation, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association, the North American Quitline Consortium, and the Smoking Cessation Leadership Center.

The working group’s efforts were sponsored by the American Legacy Foundation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Partnership for Prevention, Pfizer, Smoking Cessation Leadership Center, and UnitedHealth Group.

REPORTERS AND EDITORS, PLEASE NOTE: The www.acttiontoquit.com website also includes videotaped interviews with a number of leaders who endorsed the “Call to ACTTION,” including Gerberding, Carmona, Monroe, former Texas Health Commissioner Eduardo Sanchez, American Heart Association President Cass Wheeler, and United Health Group Executive Vice President Reed Tuckson.
 

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STATEMENTS IN SUPPORT OF THE CALL FOR ACTTION

Dr. Julie Gerberding, Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

“It’s very important that our 43 million smokers know that help is available and they can stop smoking. There are many steps to a comprehensive program: first of all, providers need to remind patients that it’s important to stop smoking and insurers must pay for comprehensive cessation benefits.”

“This Call for ACTTION sets a goal: that every tobacco user would have access to cessation interventions by the year 2020.”

Dr. Richard Carmona, Former Surgeon General, President, Canyon Ranch Institute

“This call to action is very important because we can’t possibly hope to make any inroads into significant prevention without addressing the tobacco problem in the United States. Nearly half a million people still die from tobacco-related causes every single year. Millions more develop chronic diseases, all of which are preventable, so addressing the tobacco problem for smokers and to tobacco users in general is extremely important, and this call to action addresses that.”

“To end the tobacco epidemic, it’s important that we continue to persevere, to be tenacious, to bring together all of the stakeholders, that’s individuals, employers, businesses, faith-based organizations, government, policy-makers, all of us need to come together around this issue so that we can move forward with the appropriate prevention strategies so that we make sure people never start smoking, and for those who have, that programs are in place that are affordable, that allow them access to be able to quit smoking.”

Dr. Reed Tuckson, Executive Vice President, United Health Group

"UnitedHealth Group is excited by this "Call to ACTTION" and its multidimensional plan to increase access to tobacco cessation interventions. Our daily experience in organizing health services for more than 30 million people makes us profoundly aware of the tragic health consequences associated with the persistently high prevalence of tobacco use in our country. We are encouraged by the advancement in evidence-based knowledge, clinical interventions and support services such as quit lines in treating people who struggle to overcome their addiction to tobacco products. We are proud to be a part of this initiative and are committed to working with our stakeholders to advance this significant effort to improve the health of the nation.”

Cass Wheeler, CEO, American Heart Association

“The American Heart Association is supporting this call to action because 20% of all heart disease deaths are attributable to smoking. We know from survey results that 70% of smokers want to quit. Nearly half of them try quitting each year, yet if they apply proven strategies of drug therapy, as well as counseling they can increase the likelihood that they will quit by two to three times.”

“Our goal is for every smoker to have access to these proven strategies by the year 2020. That’s how we will break the cycle of tobacco addiction, we will save lives and ultimately we will save money.”

Dr. Eduardo Sanchez, Chief Medical Officer, BCBS of Texas

“This call to action is important because we are going to have a hard time reducing cancer death if we can’t stop tobacco use in our nation.”

“What it’s going to take to end the tobacco epidemic is bringing together individuals, families, communities, employers, health plans, the public health community, the medical care community, all together to say “Let’s do everything that we can to end the use of tobacco,” and again, the evidence is there that we can do this and if we apply that evidence we can end the epidemic, we can completely eliminate the use of tobacco.”

Dr. Judy Monroe, President, Association of State and Territorial Health Officials

“The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) is pleased to support the overall mission of the Partnership for Prevention’s Call for ACTTION (Access to Cessation Treatment of Tobacco in Our Nation) to expand access to comprehensive tobacco cessation treatment to 50 percent of smokers by 2015, and 100 percent by 2020.”

Richard Schweiker, former HHS Secretary and former U.S. Senator

“Since the first Surgeon General’s report on tobacco was issued in 1964, we have seen U.S. tobacco use roughly cut in half – a significant achievement. However, the level of tobacco use has plateaued at about 20 percent of the population for the last several years. As this ‘Call for ACTTION’ points out, we know we can bring that number down even lower, and we have the tools to do it. However, we also know that too many people who would like to end their addiction to tobacco don’t have access to these tools.”