Get ready to pay a bit more for your favorite smoke. On February 4th, 2009 President Obama signed into law the expansion of the State Children’s Insurance Health Program (SCHIP).  This program provides health and dental insurance to children and pregnant mothers who do not qualify for Medicaid but cannot afford health insurance.

The SCHIP program will be funded largely by increasing Federal taxes on all tobacco products. Cigars will be hit by as much as a 700% increase.

The program goes into effect April 1st, 2009. The increase will be from 4.9 cents per cigar to 40 cents per cigar.  The rumor is that this tax is levied and paid at the time of importation, this will cause all cigar prices to increase anywhere from 40 cents to $1 per cigar by the time the tax reaches the final consumers.