COVERING SMOKING CESSATION COST WORTH PRICE-STUDY

BOSTON (Reuters) - Paying the entire cost of a program to stop
smoking may be more expensive in the short run, but it is the best way
of getting lots of people to quit, says a study in Thursday's New
England Journal of Medicine.

The finding by University of Washington researchers could alter the
willingness of insurance companies to pay for such programs and,
ultimately, get more people to quit smoking.

Conventional wisdom has been that programs to stop smoking work best
when the smoker pays a significant part of the bill. The new study,
led by Susan J. Curry, showed that conventional wisdom is true -- up
to a point.

Using data from 90,000 smokers who paid varying amounts for programs
to stop smoking, the researchers found that the success rate was 38
percent for those who paid half the price of the $85 behavioral
therapy program and $5 per prescription for their nicotine patches.

In contrast, the cessation rate was 28 percent when their insurance
covered virtually everything.

But Curry and her colleagues found that because more people
participated in the program when it was free, the free plans
ultimately induced far more people to quit. They calculated that the
extra expense of a fully-paid program was worth the investment as
nonsmokers tended to have lower medical bills.

``Removing the co-payments resulted in a tripling of the overall rate
of use of smoking-cessation services,'' the Curry team concluded.
``The results of our study provide compelling evidence to support
provision of full coverage for smoking cessation programs.''

While the total cost of a program may be $328 per person, they said,
that ``is clearly a bargain as compared with the average annual cost''
of $5,921 to treat high blood pressure and $6,941 to treat high
cholesterol levels and lower the risk of heart disease.

Getting more people to quit smoking has other benefits, they
said.

With fewer smokers in the general population, they predicted there
would be less exposure to second hand smoke, teens would be less
likely to start smoking if the adults at home were nonsmokers, and
fewer pregnant smokers should produce babies with fewer health problems.

Checked-by: Rich O'Grady