Smokers tapped to pay for new health plan

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A new health insurance plan for the working poor, funded by a 44-cent increase in the cigarette tax, was approved late Sunday by the state legislature.

The House voted to pass the plan 70-29, with the Senate voting 37-13 minutes later to do the same, sending the bill to the governor to be signed into law.

Under House Bill 1678, the cigarette tax would rise to 99.5 cents per pack, somewhat below the nationwide average of $1.12 per pack.

Sen. Patricia Miller, the Indianapolis Republican who led the fight for the bill along with Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary, said no one has to pay the tax; in fact, hoped no one would need to, by giving up or never starting smoking. She worked so hard for this bill, she said, because her father, Richard Miller, died in 1998 only 21 days after being diagnosed with lung cancer. Just a few weeks later, her brother, Richard Miller Jr., was diagnosed also with lung cancer and died a year and a half later. Both had been smokers.

“Please don’t pay the cigarette tax,” she said. “But more importantly, please don’t pay the personal price of smoking cigarettes.”

The increase would raise an estimated $206 million a year, legislative fiscal analysts say, which would fund the “Indiana Check-Up” insurance plan for about 132,000 Hoosiers who can’t afford health insurance.

The plan was first announced in the fall by Gov. Mitch Daniels, and Sunday night he was praised for that by Sen. Vi Simpson, D-Ellettsville.

“He stuck his political neck out,” Simpson said. “He not only put out a cigarette tax for us to consider, he also recognized the importance of the uninsured population and how we all pay for every single person who doesn’t have health insurance.”

Under the plan, people who make up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level—$20,420 for an individual and $41,300 for a family of four—could buy insurance under the program.

The plan provides $500 in free preventive care; a $1,100 health savings account; and up to $300,000 of annual insurance coverage from a private company.

Participants would pay only 2 percent to 5 percent of their adjusted gross income in premiums under a sliding scale in which the poorest pay the least.

The bill also raises the number of children and pregnant women who are eligible for Medicaid; allows children up to age 24 to stay on their parents’ health insurance plans; creates an insurance pool for small businesses; and provides tax incentives to encourage more employers to offer insurance.

Vernell Miller, 53, Indianapolis, said Sunday she was optimistic about the plan. She’s hoping that it will spare someone from the same fate as her daughter, Donna Miller.

Donna died April 18 of acute pneumonia. The mother of four had worked as a waitress and was unable to afford health insurance. Donna, her mother said, also had not wanted to go to the emergency room for help, preferring to pay her own way. Without care, she died.

“She didn’t have to die,” Vernell Miller said. Now, she said, “I want to give her a voice.”

She’s hoping her daughter’s story will push people to do more to help the uninsured.

But there were critics as well: people who think the cigarette tax isn’t enough, and people who thought any increase was too much.

Bill Llewellyn, the 54-year-old owner of Low Bob’s Tobacco Barn in Terre Haute, said the tax increase will hurt his business. With it, Indiana’s cigarette tax will be slightly more than the 98-cents-per-pack tax in neighboring Illinois. Right now, he gets business from Illinois—customers who will buy their tobacco in their home state after Indiana increases its tax.

“It seems like they’re targeting smokers unfairly,” he said. “Seems like the politicians do whatever is best for them.”

Wendy Cohen, a 54-year-old Zionsville mom and anti-smoking advocate, also was unhappy with the deal lawmakers struck.

She had been hoping for at least a $1 increase in the cigarette tax and would have liked to see it jump as much as $2.

“That 44 cents is just a baby step,” she said.

Call Star reporter Mary Beth Schneider at (317) 444-2772.

indystar.com

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