Smokers' problems are a large drain on the public health system,
According to a 1997 article in the New England Journal of Medicine (abstract here) that's only true in the short term. In the long term, nonsmokers wind up generating greater health care costs by living longer. (In any given age range, smokers cost more individually, but they tend to remove themselves disproportionately from the older, more expensive age ranges.):
In our study, lifetime costs for smokers can be calculated as $72,700 among men and $94,700 among women, and lifetime costs among nonsmokers can be calculated as $83,400 and $111,000, respectively. This amounts to lifetime costs for nonsmokers that are higher by 15 percent among men and 18 percent among women.
Maybe it's we nonsmokers who should be paying more into the system?
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momijizukamori
no subject
Date: 2006-02-10 10:01 pm (UTC)According to a 1997 article in the New England Journal of Medicine (abstract here) that's only true in the short term. In the long term, nonsmokers wind up generating greater health care costs by living longer. (In any given age range, smokers cost more individually, but they tend to remove themselves disproportionately from the older, more expensive age ranges.):Maybe it's we nonsmokers who should be paying more into the system?