Errors in using tobacco withdrawal scale

In 1997 the National Conference of State Legislatures in the United States conducted a survey of state Medicaid agencies for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to determine the extent to which states covered nicotine addiction treatment as a routine benefit under Medicaid (the government programme that provides health care to the poor).Only 22 states and the District of Columbia reported coverage for nicotine addiction treatment services under Medicaid, including only 19 of the 40 states with lawsuits against the tobacco industry to recoup Medicaid costs of smoking.These 22 states were California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin.A repeat survey is now underway to obtain more detailed information on these benefits and to update the findings. 1 We estimate that Medicaid provides health insurance coverage for five million or more smokers, including about 70% of all pregnant smokers.Like their counterparts covered under private health insurance, Medicaid smokers need access to readily available, evidence-based nicotine addiction treatment resources and services.Treatment for nicotine addiction is more cost-eVective than many other medical interventions that are routinely covered under Medicaid.Brief quit-smoking advice and counselling from a primary-care provider combined with transdermal nicotine are estimated to cost only $263 per successful quitter.