Military healthcare program TRICARE is making a wide range of anti-smoking prescription medications available to its beneficiaries for free.
Medicines like varencline, Chantix, buproprion, Zyban, as well as smoking cessation products, such as gums, pills, lozenges, patches or nasal sprays can now be delivered free to TRICARE beneficiaries.
?This is an important step in moving from health care to health through a comprehensive TRICARE tobacco cessation program,? Dr. Jonathan Woodson, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs and director of TRICARE Management Activity, said in a news release. ?When troops smoke, it diminishes their ability to participate in physical activity and, of course, increases the chance of respiratory disease.?
Soon, those same medications are expected to be available in most military clinics and hospitals ? also at no cost ? and as always, a prescription will be required to obtain them. TRICARE beneficiaries are encouraged to check ahead for availability and see if their military facility requires participation in a cessation program or class.
In 2005, the smoking rate of military personnel was found to be higher at 32.2 percent compared to the civilian rate of 21 percent. Pentagon health experts have since began pressuring military units to implement smoking bans. By late 2010,??the Navy has taken step to address the problem of tobacco use in the unit by implementing a?smoking ban in submarines.
As with TRICARE, it was in 2009 when Congress passed a law requiring the health care program to establish a smoking cessation program that included prescription drugs.
?We must dedicate time and effort to building a fit and ready force and making sure that our beneficiaries, even after they retire, live long and healthy lives,? Woodson added.
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