March 28, 2011

The 2010 ActionToQuit State Grantees have held their summits and are working on implementing their strategies to increase access to tobacco cessation treatments.  The 2011 grantees have started work on their projects.  Each month the newsletter features an interview with a different grantee to share information about their activities and progress.  The interview this month is with Georgia.

ActionToQuit:

Can you give our readers some basic information about your project and staff?

Georgia:

I am June Deen, State Director for the American Lung Association (ALA) in Georgia and director of this project.  I will work on the advocacy aspect of the project and Ateya Wilson, Regional Manager, will bring support from the programs/services side.  We will work with a consultant, Linda Lowe, a highly regarded health care advocate for the underserved.  Linda is known for her expertise in the Medicaid program and her credibility as an advocate.  Brenda Olsen, Chief Operating Officer of the ALA of the Southeast, which includes Georgia, will also provide assistance and we will get the benefit of her experience with the ActionToQuit project in Florida.

Our project seeks to build support for comprehensive cessation coverage for Medicaid recipients.  We hope the achievement of this coverage will drive the state to provide insurance coverage for its employees.

ActionToQuit:

Can you give us a brief summary of the project?

Georgia:

Although we will use social media tools, we will also focus on building old-fashioned grassroots support, recruiting traditional and non-traditional partners to work with us.  We will need to do a lot of education.  Cessation is not a high profile issue.  The public does not realize that Medicaid recipients have nearly no options for assistance in quitting.  So, we will go into communities and identify supporters and new non-traditional helpers.  We can’t sit at a desk in Atlanta and expect to build the effort we need.  We will go to meetings in local communities around the state and hope to recruit five hardy souls in each location to help us.  We will ask these local advocates to approach legislative officials to see what they know about our Medicaid cessation coverage as a way to educate them.

This groundwork in targeted areas will take place over the summer.  Then in the fall we plan to have our summit.  After we have had interactions with local officials and communities and stirred their interest, then we can develop a plan of action with concrete steps to carry out.

ActionToQuit:

Who are your partners?  Do you have any non-traditional partners?

Georgia:

Traditional tobacco control advocates such as the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society have joined with us.  We will also be working with groups that have not always been tied into tobacco control issues.  We will reconnect with tobacco control partners from previous campaigns including the Center for Pan Asian Communities, the Atlanta Lesbian Health Initiative, the National Black Leadership Initiative on Cancer, and faith groups interested in health care and equity issues.

ActionToQuit:

Can you give us a brief snapshot of cessation policy in your state?

Georgia:

The picture in our state is not pretty.  Medicaid has provided a benefit for pregnant women with limited generic medications and counseling.  As of this year, state workers can get phone counseling.  The state employee health insurance program is now charging smokers an extra premium of $80 per month.  The quitline has only enough money for administration and occasional payment for nicotine replacement therapy in limited areas, but no budget for promotion.

ActionToQuit:

Can you tell us a little about your summit? Who are you inviting? 

Georgia:

We plan to have 50 people, including some who will participate remotely.  The participants will be individuals that we have met with and representatives of statewide organizations.  The remote facilities will be provided through cooperation with the department of health.

ActionToQuit:

What are your objectives?

Georgia:

We want people to feel they have ownership in this campaign. We believe that offering assistance to Medicaid recipients is the best issue for crossing party and ideological lines.  The important thing is to ensure more people know about this issue and want our policies to change.

ActionToQuit:

What obstacles do you face? 

Georgia:

State budgetary constraints and the political climate are big obstacles.  The lack of awareness about this issue is also a problem.  In our state there is strong opposition to health care reform.  We will frame the cessation benefit as its own issue.

ActionToQuit:

Has there been any reaction or response to your plans yet? 

Georgia:

Before the November election, people across party lines were receptive to eliminating this inequity.  Since then, people have become a little more wary of anything that seems to be related to health care reform or that involves spending.  We need to show legislators that their constituents favor coverage of this type.  This is not strictly a legislative issue.  Changes can be made administratively, but it helps to have legislative and public support.

ActionToQuit:

What would you like to be different in your state one year from now?

Georgia:

I will cross my fingers that the economy will improve.  That will help in our goal of making headway with the Department of Community Health to provide cessation coverage for Medicaid recipients.