quote:

Originally posted by Tedbear

Although this information is about 7 years old, the dollar figure mentioned is truly staggering:

"The total cost of caring for people with health problems caused by cigarette smoking — counting all sources of medical payments — is about $72.7 billion per year, according to health economists at the University of California."

And, to reiterate my earlier point–even if you don’t care about the health of other people, you may care about these costs, since they are factored into your own health insurance premiums as well as your State taxes that support Medicaid payments for the indigent.

To a degree, I agree with the points you are making, although legislating away stupidity is a rather fruitless and seemingly endless endeavor.

That said, I have seen the type of statistics you posted above picked apart on several occasions. These types of statistics seem to assume you become immortal and never need to spend a nickel on health care if you don’t smoke. I have seen studies that show smokers tend to avoid health care and may actually be less of a burden on the "system" in the long run because of this. We all die from something, and those who live longer usually require a great deal of health care spending. The smokers of the world may actually be helping keep costs down by killing themselves prematurely!

It should also be noted that obesity, the kind one may get from eating just the types of food championed on this web site, may be an even costlier problem. Studies also dating back about 6 or 7 years indicated that the direct health care costs of care attributable to obesity are over $100 billion! http://www.obesity.org/treatment/cost.shtml.

Would you be in favor of the same type of legislation associated with smoking being applied to foods with little or no nutritional value, but high levels of fat or calories? Outrageous taxes being added to a pint of Ben and Jerry’s? I would not. I like laws that keep smoke out of my face, but some legislation goes further, and almost moves smoking into the realm of illicit behavior.