Thaindian News

By Gina Gomez
Washington, Aug 31, (THAINDIAN NEWS) If you are on the health insurance program Medicare and find it really hard to quit smoking then there is some real good news for you. From next year, Medicare would be providing a huge array of preventive care services which apart from screening for colerectal cancer and mammograms, would also take into account tobacco cessation counseling. However, the health insurance program is going to immediately extend the benefit to around eight counseling sessions every year for smokers who wish to kick the habit.

From January 2011, as per the provision of the health care law signed by President Barack Obama that removes co-payments for preventive measures, these kind of counseling would become free of cost. While explaining the decision of the Medicare to expand its benefits, Dr. Barry Straube who is its chief medical officer revealed to the media that it is never too late to quit smoking even for people who are addicted to it for years. The Medicare chief medical officer further went on to say that the smoking cessation counseling can yield results for the elderly chain smokers even if they have been smoking for three decades or more.

Apart from taking into considerations the senior citizens of the country aged 65 or above, the brand new smoking cessation counseling program proposed by Medicare would also provide the benefits to younger people who are in the insurance program owing to some kind of disability. Among the total number of young people who are covered in Medicare, an estimated 1 million are addicted to smoking.