JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has announced that the State received its annual payment from tobacco companies under a 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) to recover healthcare costs associated with treating smoking related illnesses. This year’s payment to Missouri totaled over $104,398,888.
“We’ve all seen the effects that the tobacco epidemic had on our communities, and while it raged on, several major companies schemed their way into profiting from it,” said Attorney General Andrew Bailey. “The ones who paid the price: our children. This settlement with the tobacco companies has been instrumental in helping Missourians so that future lives are not ravaged. My office will continue to hold anyone who targets Missouri consumers, especially our children, accountable.”
Under the MSA, tobacco manufacturers are obligated to make annual payments to the Settling States in perpetuity as long as cigarettes are sold in the U.S. by companies that are part of the settlement. In 1998, 52 states and territories, including Missouri, signed the agreement with the four largest tobacco companies to settle state lawsuits brought to recover billions of dollars in healthcare costs associated with treating smoking-related illnesses. Eventually, more than 45 tobacco companies settled under the MSA.
The MSA’s purpose is to reduce smoking, especially in youth. This is achieved in part by raising the cost of cigarettes by imposing payment on the tobacco companies that are part of the agreement and eliminating practices that obscure tobacco’s health risks. Another key element of the MSA is banning practices that would market tobacco products to youth.
The MSA continues to have a profound effect on smoking in America, particularly among youth. As advocates for the public interest, Attorney General Bailey and other state attorneys general are actively and successfully continuing to enforce the provisions of the MSA to reduce tobacco use and protect consumers.
Between 1998 and 2019, U.S. cigarette consumption dropped by more than 50 percent. During that same time period, regular smoking by high schoolers dropped from 36.4 percent to 6.0 percent.