February 11, 2011 - Healthy People 2020, a 10-year initiative consisting of National goals to improve the health of all Americans, includes tobacco use as one of its initiatives. The goals of Healthy People 2020 encourage collaboration across sectors, guide individuals towards making informed health decisions and measure the impact of prevention activities.  Because tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of death in the U.S., reducing the illness, disability and death related to tobacco use and secondhand smoke exposure has been identified as a Healthy People 2020 goal. The tobacco use objectives are organized into three key areas: tobacco use prevalence, health system change, and social and environmental change.
Seven of the 20 objectives identified reference smoking cessation services.  Objectives four and five refer to increasing smoking cessation attempts and success by adult smokers while objectives six and seven focus on increasing pregnancy and adolescent smoking cessation awareness and use.  Objectives eight through ten refer to health system change, including Medicaid insurance coverage of treatment for nicotine dependency, tobacco screenings in healthcare, ambulatory, dental, and substance abuse care settings, and tobacco cessation counseling in office-based ambulatory and hospital ambulatory settings.

For more information please visit:
http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topicsobjectives2020/overview.aspx?topicid=41