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Alex Cohen is the Director of Learning and Evaluation for the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. According to recently released data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Indiana’s already high smoking rate has gotten worse, in contrast to declines in most other states. That is bad news for Hoosiers and our state’s economy. Smoking remains the number one cause of preventable death in the United States and takes a heavy toll on Indiana especially. An estimated 11,100 Hoosiers…
Health

Claire Fiddian-Green is the President & CEO of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. The 2018 America’s Health Rankings report was just released, and Indiana has slipped from 38th to 41st out of 50 states. According to the report: “States ranking least healthy are in the South with the exception of Indiana.” For the sake of the people of Indiana and the economic well-being of our state, we simply must do better. The primary root causes of Indiana’s poor ranking are clear: we rank…
Health

Alex Cohen is the Director of Learning and Evaluation for the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. Smokers, like all people, respond to incentives. One powerful incentive is price. When something becomes more expensive, people are less likely to consume that item. This fact is borne out in the extensive literature on the impact of cigarette taxes on smoking: As prices rise through taxes, fewer people smoke. This happens by keeping non-smokers, including youth, from starting in the first place an…
Health