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Do smoking cessation pills and programs work?

I know many former smokers; my son-in-law quit 9 years ago, his father knows the exact day in 1980 that he quit after 37 years of being a smoker. Both my father and my husband's father began smoking as teen-agers; one quit at 39, the other around 50 (his wife didn't quit and died of lung cancer). A good friend of ours quit about 5 years ago in his 60s after heart surgery, but has recently been diagnosed with cancer. I know many people who thought they could not live without a cigarette but miraculously discovered after lung cancer, COPD or triple by-pass, they could indeed live well and not smoke. Of all the former smokers I know, all quit by. . . quiting. They stopped lighting up, usually cold turkey not gradually, and just suffered the short term consequences and discomfort rather than the agony and pain of losing a lung or the disability of having a stroke or heart attack.

So when I read about Medicaid paying for smoking cessation programs I wondered if that's the best use of our tax money. 41 million Americans have their health insurance through Medicaid, and 29% of them are smokers. Medicaid is handled by the states--in Ohio, 37.6% of our state taxes go to fund Medicaid. Thirty-eight of the 50 states offer some sort of coverage for at least one smoking treatment according to MMWR 2006:55:1193-1197. Some are a mix and match between drugs and behavioral modification.

Obviously, it's not healthy for anyone to smoke, but does any one but the pharmaceutical companies and the people who run these programs really benefit?