Muhammad Awidi, Hematology and Oncology Fellow at Roswell Park Cancer Center, shared on LinkedIn:
“Can Jordan’s health system survive the smoking epidemic?
I was invited to speak at The Alliance of Jordanian Universities against Tobacco and Smoking a few days ago. I posed that exact question to them.
The short answer is No. And the ‘why’ should be an economic and clinical wake-up call.
The hard facts:
- We are mortgaging our youth. 50% of Jordanians are under the age of 20. Yet, 34% of teens are already smokers. We aren’t even seeing the full ‘health bill’ for this yet but it’s coming.
- The ‘Cheap’ Trap. Tobacco taxes are around 75%, yet a pack remains among the most affordable in the region. It’s too easy to start and too cheap to stay addicted.
- The Math Doesn’t Add Up.
Cost to the economy: $2.1 Billion
Tax revenue: $1.4 Billion
Net loss: $700 Million every single year. - With the health budget stagnant at ~6% of GDP, we simply don’t have the infrastructure to handle the surge in chronic disease coming in the next 10 years.
The Solution?
A Sovereign Health Fund
This must be constitutionally protected from being ‘borrowed’ by other departments or reallocated. We need a system that actually accounts for the high cost of care and loss of productivity
- Tobacco Companies: A mandatory CSR contribution of 5–7% of profits.
- The Consumer: A dynamic ‘health premium’ of 0.2–0.5 JOD per pack at the point of purchase.
Most importantly, we need to treat the addiction, not just the eventual disease by funding a National Cessation Clinics network with real incentives for patients.
It’s time to stop viewing tobacco as a revenue stream and start seeing it for what it is: a national health debt we can no longer afford to ignore.”
Other Articles Featuring Muhammad Awidi on OncoDaily.
