Across America, special interest groups are lining up, hoping to get money out of the national tobacco settlement for their pet causes, many of them non–health related. Signed on November 23rd by 46 states, the settlement requires several of the major tobacco companies to pay $206 billion over the next 25 years. Each state will receive a different amount, dependent partially on their number of Medicaid residents. And although there is nothing in the deal outlining how the funds have to be used, cancer centers in at least three states are working on garnering a share—beating out groups that would use the money for new classrooms, roads or housing.
The suits were originally filed by all 50 states to recover costs of caring for Medicaid recipients who contracted tobacco–related illnesses. Under the action, tobacco companies are required to stop billboard advertising, limit sponsorship of sporting events and mount a counter–marketing campaign aimed at children. Four states—Mississippi, Minnesota, Florida and Texas—settled separately with the industry earlier in 1998. But none of the settlements have been finalized. In every state, a Supreme Court judge has to agree to the terms before the state legislature can appropriate the money. That is where the lobbying comes in.
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