Pentagon Seeks Share of Tobacco Deal

Asserting that it spends $584 million a year to treat service personnel with illnesses caused by smoking, the Pentagon--the first federal agency to file a claim--is seeking reimbursement under a proposed tobacco industry legal settlement, the Defense Department said Tuesday.

“We, like states and other entities in the United States, are trying to see if it’s possible to get some reimbursement for the additional costs of caring for smoking-related illnesses,” Defense Department spokesman Kenneth Bacon said.

He said the department estimates that smoking by members of the armed forces had added almost $15 billion to military health costs during the last 25 years.

If the Pentagon succeeds in getting a share of the proposed tobacco settlement, that would seem to clear the way for at least three other federal agencies to seek reimbursement for their smoking-related health claims--the Department of Health and Human Services, for the Medicare and Medicaid programs, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the General Services Administration, which runs the Federal Employee Health Benefits Plan.

A tobacco industry spokesman said the cigarette companies have no intention of increasing the amount of the proposed $368.5-billion settlement. It is up to Congress to decide how that money would be divided.

“If the Congress wants to peel off some of the money for the Pentagon, that will be the Congress’ decision,” the spokesman said.

Congress has postponed action on the proposed settlement until next year, but some members, such as Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), have long backed the idea of increasing the size of the tobacco settlement to compensate the federal government as well as the states.

Some state officials are lobbying Congress to allow states to keep and spend all of the money. But most analysts expect that each state receiving a portion of the settlement will be required to rebate to the federal government a percentage of the money equal to the federal share of its Medicaid expenditures--between 50% and 80% of the total.

Bacon said the Defense Department made its request Sept. 22 in a letter from the department’s legal counsel, Judith Miller, to the White House domestic policy staff. It will be up to the White House to decide if the Pentagon will be allowed to press its claim.

Bacon said that about 32% of active duty military personnel smoke, a number almost identical to the 31% of the public. Military smoking is down from 51% in 1980.

“We’re aiming to get that down to 20% by the year 2000,” Bacon added. “We’ve made significant progress and we’ve done that by distributing health information, by making it more difficult to smoke on active duty and by reducing the subsidies for cigarettes.”

But for decades, the military encouraged smoking, selling cigarettes at deep discounts and making a place for tobacco in the military culture.