Smoke Em If You Got Em

2/7/08


Whenever I was a smoker* it used to annoy me no end when non-smokers would slap their holier-than-thou palms together at every tax hike or new regulation that came out against cigarettes. It still irritates me a great deal whenever someone pushes their unsolicited idea of healthy living onto another. The jury’s still out on how damaging occasional second-hand smoke is, and while I find the thought of people smoking inside their home around their kids appalling, it seems the casual incidence of standing next to someone puffing away out on the street corner is slightly better than breathing normal city air.

There was, however, one argument the Nons use that I could never really refute. That is the assertion that non-smokers shouldn’t have to pony-up their hard-earned tax dollars for the increased cost of health care associated with smoking. How could I find fault with that? I certainly find the idea that I’m shelling out more to keep the 400-pound woman sucking down KFC extra-crispy than I am for the guy down the block who runs two miles a day. Long have the fat and smoky been chastised for ramping up the costs of health care on the rest of us who’d just rather have an apple, thanks. Well, ladies and gentlemen, it turns out the lady with the doughnut and that dude with the coffin nail are actually saving us thousands.

According to a Dutch study released Monday in the Public Library of Science Medical Journal, the health costs to the public to take care of healthy people is far more than that of smokers or the obese. Why? Bluntly, because “healthy” people hang onto life longer than either of these other groups, and the most expensive healthcare comes from the last years of life. Let’s run the numbers, shall we?

The National Institute for Public Heath and the Environment, who conducted the study, considered three groups of 1000 people each: One smoking group, one obese group, and one healthy group. Healthy people, on average, live 84 years. Obese people about 80 years, and smokers around 77 years. The smokers and obese tended to have more heart disease, obese people had more diabetes, all three groups had the same cancer risk (save the increased lung cancer risk for smokers) and, strangely, the healthy group had the most strokes.

From age 20 on, the cost for health care for the healthy cost about $417,000. The obese cost $371,000, and the puffers came in cheapest at a paltry $326,000. Essentially, healthy people die later for more expensive reasons. Nursing homes are among the most expensive health costs for the people living out their Kevorkian years.

According to Dutch economist Pieter van Baal who took part in the study, “If you live longer, then you cost the health system more. Lung cancer is a cheap disease to treat because people don’t survive very long. But if they are old enough to get Alzheimer’s one day, they may survive longer and cost more.”

So the next time you pass a fellow human shivering on the sidewalk, furiously sucking fire deep into his lungs, give him a little wink and say, “Thanks for doing your part, buddy.”

* As of last Monday I’ve been a non-smoker for 7 months. I think I’ve had 5 or 6 smokes since quitting.

Sources:
http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/health/15293006.html
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/living-longer-is-hazardous-to-the-taxpayer/58164-17.html
http://www.reformer.com/editorials/ci_8192931