Under a proposal from Sen. John Land, D-Manning, most of the proceeds from an increased smokes tax would be devoted to Medicaid. Under the federal matching system, that would mean an additional $500 million for the program that serves the poor, disabled and elderly, according to the AP report. That’s not a bad proposal. Yet Mr. Land’s disagreement with an original proposal to use revenue for tax credits to allow individuals and businesses to provide health insurance is wrong in at least one regard. We agree, and have stated numerous times in the past, that the average individual would have a difficult time obtaining private insurance, now estimated to cost $4,000 per person annually. Revenues from the increased tax would make little impact for the thousands of South Carolinians who have no coverage. But we believe assisting businesses that don’t currently offer health care coverage to employees would have a positive impact on a large percentage of South Carolinians: the working poor. Or as we used to be called, the middle class.