A new report from the American Cancer Society's Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) finds Indiana is lagging behind in cancer control and related patient access policies.
This is the fourteenth edition of the How Do You Measure Up progress report, and Indiana meets four out of ten policy recommendations.
ACS CAN's Indiana government relations director Brian Hannon says Indiana's low tobacco tax rates play into high smoking rates.
"We know that increasing that is the best way to help smokers quit, and we're also doing a pretty poor job of funding prevention programs, tobacco prevention programs," Hannon says.
Last session, Indiana lawmakers considered a dollar hike in the tobacco tax as part of the road funding debate. That proposal ultimately failed. Hannon hopes legislators will reconsider this year.
"So it's really kind of a win, win, win," he says. "It's politically feasible, it's not much of a dangerous move for our elected officials and it's also going to reduce smoking rates thereby reducing the costs related to health care."
Hannon says Indiana is doing well in a number of categories like increasing Medicaid coverage and fairness related to cancer. He also points to a new palliative care law that improves delivery of comprehensive care.
Experts say nearly half of cancer deaths could be prevented if people stopped smoking, ate healthier, exercised and were screened more.