Should Cigarette Taxes Be Used to Pay for Healthcare?

March 2, 2007 11:05 AM |

Twelve states are considering proposals to hike cigarette taxes, mostly in order to pay for healthcare initiatives, while a proposal in the U.S. Senate would hike the federal cigarette tax to fund an expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Of the 12 states, seven would use the money for healthcare. The increase may now be off the table in one of those states, Indiana. Governor Mitch Daniels's proposal to increase the tax from 55.5 cents to 80.5 cents was just rejected by the State House of Representatives. In the U.S. Senate, Gordon Smith (R-OR) claims that using cigarette taxes for SCHIP would be justified by the link between cigarettes and healthcare, which is not exactly a watertight argument since the vast majority of children served would not be smokers. Of course, efforts to find revenue sources for SCHIP, which currently faces a shortfall, are welcomed. Smith has not put forth specific legislation but says he wants to make clear that he's open to such a move, and Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) is said to be supportive.

But there are two problems with cigarette taxes. First, as is the case with sales taxes generally, they are highly regressive, taking a far greater percentage of income from poor households than the wealthy. Second, they are bound to be a declining revenue source. The value of the tax is reduced over time with inflation, and if smoking really does decline as a result of the tax increases, then the revenue also declines, leaving important health programs in a lurch. Of course, if the real purpose is simply to reduce smoking, then cigarette taxes can be quite effective in that regard. For more, see the ITEP policy brief on cigarette taxes. 

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This page contains a single entry by published on March 2, 2007 11:05 AM.

Latest Data From CTJ Shows Over Two Trillion Spent this Decade on Tax Cuts was the previous entry in this blog.

States Growing Tired of Large National Businesses Avoiding State Taxes is the next entry in this blog.

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