Addressing Heart Disease in New Mexico
Addressing Heart Disease in New Mexico Why a cigarette tax is a viable solution Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in New Mexico. One out of five deaths are due to heart disease. The economic costs are mind-boggling: an estimated $4.4 billion per year— in medical care and absenteeism. Taking the number of deaths in 2020 this can be estimated to be $1.04 million loss per death. A question everyone should be asking themselves: are there factors that will increase my likelihood of experiencing heart disease? Smoking is one of the top three risk factors for heart disease [i] . The other two risk factors are high blood pressure and high cholesterol. To combat the number of deaths caused by heart disease, decision makers should target smoking rates in New Mexico. Quitting smoking reduces the risk of heart disease by half after one year [ ii ]. A cigarette tax could help reduce smoking rates. In 2019, New Mexico raised the cigarette tax