In the next few weeks, legislators in Maine will decide whether to accept Gov. Paul LePage’s proposed cuts to MaineCare for 2013.

On the chopping block are smoking cessation therapies – treatments that can save lives and money for residents in Maine.

As a doctor who sees patients who smoke every day, I am concerned and distressed that Maine is planning to take away some of the best new treatments for tobacco addiction.

Many of my patients have been helped by these medications.

To have them removed will reduce the best chance of helping them to stop smoking.

According to the United Health Foundation, nearly 20 percent of adults in Maine smoke.

Maine now ranks 28th in our country when it comes to smoking rates, and the numbers are going in the wrong direction. The number of smokers in Maine increased from 2010-2011.

The American Lung Association’s State of Tobacco Control report assigns letter grades, much like a school report card, to each of the 50 states for specific key tobacco-control policies.

Last year, Maine was downgraded to a D for tobacco-prevention control and spending.

For cessation coverage it received a B.

Cuts to the program would only put Maine in a downward spiral. Now is not the time to cut funding to cessation therapies.

If the governor’s proposals go through, the Medicaid program stands to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars next year.

That dollar amount will do little to fill the budget hole, but will detrimentally affect the thousands of people who are trying to quit smoking.

Studies prove that one of the best ways to save money on health care is to get people healthy. Quitting smoking is one of the best ways to improve a person’s overall health.

We don’t have to look far for proof.

A study just conducted by George Washington University found that in Massachusetts, every dollar spent on anti-smoking programs for low-income people saved $3 in medical costs.

Thousands of people have taken advantage of the programs offered. The state Medicare program has seen a reduction in heart attacks, asthma attacks and hospitalizations.

Every year, nearly half a million people in the U.S. die from tobacco-related illnesses and secondhand-smoke exposure.

Put a face to those numbers and you have a child, a mother, a father, sister, brother, friends.

Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death.

Thirty percent of all cancer deaths, including 87 percent of lung cancer deaths can be attributed to using tobacco.

Those statistics become even more meaningful when you consider that nearly a quarter of a million Mainers smoke.

According to the state Centers for Disease Control, smoking rates among Medicaid recipients are higher than that of the general population.

Without access to such preventive services, more people will continue this deadly habit. This ultimately leads to a bleak health outcome for those smokers and higher medical bills for the taxpayer.

In fact, a study done by Pennsylvania State University researchers found that when you add direct health care expenditures, workplace productivity losses and premature death, smoking costs Maine more than a billion and a half dollars every year.

Put another way, while the average retail price of a pack of cigarettes in Maine is $6.46, the real price to society and to the state’s economy is more than $26 per pack.

The state could surely find other uses for that money.

The same study found that funding smoking-cessation treatments could save Maine more than $5 million every year.

As our state continues to battle to balance budgets, it’s more important than ever for our legislators to show leadership by not taking away solutions to curb this problem for those who can least afford it.

Helping smokers quit is an important opportunity to not only save lives, but also save money. It’s not just the right thing to do, it’s the fiscally smart thing to do.