Project "Stop Coffin"

Healthcare which focuses on prevention

The impact of smoking on healthcare costs is staggering. If Americans made better lifestyle choices we could dissect $1 trillion from US healthcare expenditures.

Medical Justice®, a Greensboro, North Carolina based healthcare company, has developed a model to reduce the smoking rate. The model is named "Project Stop Coffin!"

Taxing cigarettes has proven very effective in cutting the smoking rate. The current paradigm taxes each pack of cigarettes one at a time. In the Project Stop Coffin model cigarettes themselves aren't taxed, the smoker is.

Many smokers want to quit. They do not like paying the tax, but, since the tax is a small number connected to each pack of cigarettes, it is more of an annoyance than a burden. The smoker can usually find the $0.35 to $3.00 to purchase each pack. If the yearly tax had to be paid up-front, instead of amortized over the year, many smokers would give pause for thought as to whether they want to continue. Further, many youngsters would likely find it economically impossible to start smoking.

How Does It Work?

The smoker pre-purchases a license to buy cigarettes for the upcoming year. When pre-paying, a smoker will receive a smart card or alternatively receive a scan code on their driver's license. When the licensee buys cigarettes, the vendor debits "stored value" from his card. He can purchase until the card is depleted.

The license would grant the person the right to purchase cigarettes for one year. In this model, the person would need to make a decision on January 1st. Does hewant to pay $365 upfront for the right to smoke 1 pack a day for the next year? Or would he rather redeploy those funds for something of greater immediate value? The person who wanted to stop would now have a more compelling reason to do so. This model is not dissimilar to decision that would be made in purchasing a car. Most people can ill afford to pay $30,000 upfront for the car. But, amortized over 4 years, it's not anywhere as much of a burden.

The current cigarette tax would be removed from each pack of cigarettes so that the cost per pack, sans tax, would be lower. That would make the aggregate tax over one year for a one-pack a day smoker unchanged. Accordingly, the yearly cost to smoke one pack a day would also be unchanged from now. The primary difference is that the tax would be front-loaded.

If someone wants to smoke two packs a day throughout the year, instead of one, the tax is doubled. So a two-pack-a-day smoker must prepay $1,460, for example, for his habit—a strong incentive for him to cut his habit in half, if not completely.

The system might also reward smokers with refunds if they quit. The refund would be pro-rata according to the number of "unsmoked" packs. If one wanted to restart, there again would be a stiffer penalty, perhaps having to prepay the entire year's worth of taxes (without any pro-rata benefit).

Details and Questions:

Can several people share one license?

It would be less expensive for three people, who are each one pack a day smokers, to buy their own license, rather than have one person purchase a license to allow purchase of three packs a day. What about 3 people who each smoke 1/3 pack a day? One person would purchase the license, and split cigarettes with the other two. Here, the license-holder would bear the entire burden by being labeled the sole smoker. He would pay extra health insurance and life insurance. Most people are not that charitable. Most people would struggle watching their comrades get a free ride at their expense.

Will there be cross state trafficking?

Probably no more than there currently is. There might be if someone just wanted to buy a single pack. But, going across the border on a regular basis is not sustainable over time. If someone wants to purchase a year's worth of cigarettes upfront, he is better off just buying the license and then buying the untaxed packs one at a time. The model for a one-pack a day smoker does not impose any additional taxes. It just redistributes them upfront.

Is the program unfair to tobacco farmers?

The savings from getting the country to kick the habit would be far greater than the aggregate cost to the farmers. Some of the savings could be rechanneled to retrain the farmers as well as minimize their long term loss.

Is the program unfair to tobacco companies?

Those companies are in the nicotine delivery business. The product they distribute is unsafe and imposes a heavy cost on society as a whole. No one would begrudge the companies if they could make a safer product. That is what we ask of every other industry.

Does the model interfere with privacy rights?

Most smokers purchase their cigarettes in public. They rarely hide their habit. And, often, they must disclose to health and life insurers, for example, that they do indeed smoke. It is unlikely that privacy concerns would impact such a program. Nonetheless, if a consumer wanted to opt out of the licensing program, he could purchase one pack at a time, at the highest possible rate, perhaps, $10 per pack.

What Are The Challenges?

1. Intrinsic technology is complicated but not difficult.
2. The bigger challenge is convincing politicians to implement the program. The nation's long-term health costs due to smoking far outweigh any near-term revenue from current cigarette taxes.
3. Resistance from the largest tobacco companies.

Expected support from the business, healthcare, and insurance industries, plus non-smokers, will help combat this resistance. Paradoxically, smokers also will provide tremendous support. The majority of them are highly receptive to tools that help them quit.

In summary, the Medical Justice Stop Coffin program takes advantage of the brain's basic architecture, allowing a rational, long-term plan to prevail over short-term gain. By presenting cost in a different light, the brain will be primed to make a better decision; and the lungs will say thanks.

To get involved or to stay current with progress reports, please email us at .