Program helps people quit smoking

SPRINGFIELD, Ma. (WWLP) - The new MassHealth benefit offered to low income smokers is working, according to the State Department of Public Health.

Statistics show the program has attracted 75,000 smokers leading to a 26 percent drop in the smoking rate across the state.

In Springfield, four thousand low income smokers have tried to quit, the most in Massachusetts.

The DPH says, as a result, there has been a 38 percent drop in the number of heart attack hospitalizations, and a 17 percent decline in the number of trips to the emergency room and complications during birth.

For more information about the program, click here.