Smokers are actually cheaper for the healthcare system because they die early and don't require years and years of intensive medical care during old age.
While it's technically true I've always hated this argument. Yes, smokers are without doubt cheaper for the healthcare system because they die earlier and faster. It's completely missing the point though, because the entire reason we have our healthcare system is to provide a long and high quality life for the population. Someone dying earlier may be cheaper, but it's also a failure.
Although there are plenty of studies to suggest otherwise, at least one study: http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/jou... suggests that smokers have a lifetime healthcare cost that is lower for the simple reason that they die earlier, and dying is cheap.
full disclosure: I smoke, and am thus not impartial when it comes to higher cigarette taxes.
Btw, it’s counterintuitive and morbid to think about, but the healthcare and other public spending is actually less for smokers than nonsmokers on average: they tend to die right around retirement age before social security and expensive healthcare is needed. See e.g. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1210319
Maybe this was incorrect information, but I was under the impression that smokers were generally less of a cost on healthcare, as they tended to die earlier and use less medical resources.
The TLDR is: smoking and obesity cause you to die sooner with less total medical costs[1]. This is great for things like social security since you can pay in over your entire life but never collect.
The story I remember hearing (and couldn't find a specific citation) was that anti-smoking groups made up a bunch of big numbers about smokers' high medical costs to scaremonger. To fight back Phillip-Morris did a study and legitimately found that smokers died sooner and total costs were lower. Unfortunately, that's not something you really want to publicize, so anti-smoking people can keep making up scary numbers and cigarette companies can't really fight back.
> Absolutes aside, a smoker should have higher insurance costs than a non-smoker.
This is probably false. Smokers rack up less health care costs than nonsmokers because they die earlier. The study I'm linking doesn't consider the possibility of exiting paying into a healthcare system early, but even most smokers die after retirement:
Smokers (and the obese) are cheaper in health care costs than non-smokers. Why? To be blunt, because smokers die early.
Keeping someone alive into their 90s is more expensive than someone who dies of smoking derived illness in their 70s or younger. This is similarly true for the obese.
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