I have heard some lawmakers defend their vote for the governor’s latest budget as an attempt to move Maine into the mainstream with other states.

While this may be true in some respects, it is glaringly false in one instance. Maine has joined Alabama and Georgia as the only states not covering a tobacco cessation treatment in their state’s Medicaid program beyond federal requirements.

Lawmakers claim the move to eliminate the tobacco cessation medication benefit for MaineCare (Medicaid) enrollees will save the state about $385,000 in fiscal year 2013.

In 2010, smoking cost Maine people more than $600 million in health care expenditures; MaineCare paid for $216 million.

The smoking rate in 2010 among adults with incomes less than $15,000 per year (MaineCare eligible) was about 37 percent, more than double that of Maine’s general adult population.

Clearly Maine has more — not less — work to do in reducing tobacco use, improving health and lowering costs among this vulnerable population.

When Massachusetts removed treatment barriers to Medicaid recipients who wanted to quit smoking, it got the following results: More than 70,000 people tried to quit; the smoking rate among the Medicaid population dropped from 38 percent to 28 percent; hospitalization for certain smoking-related diseases dropped more than 45 percent.

In the first year, the state saved $3 for every $1 it invested in helping low-income people quit smoking.

Our legislators knew about this evidence when they decided to roll back coverage. If ever there was a budget cut that was penny wise and a pound foolish, it was eliminating tobacco cessation coverage.

Forty-seven states see helping low-income smokers quit as a smart investment. It is too bad Maine is no longer part of that “mainstream.”

Edward F. Miller

Senior vice president, Public Policy

American Lung Association

of the Northeast, Augusta