Help the US Economy: Pick up Smoking

[That Guy]

donathos said:

That Guy said:

Smokers may cost more in healthcare, but that is offset by the fact that they die sooner. Healther people live longer, therefore, the cost to keep them alive for an extra 10 years or so that drives up the cost of healthcare/pension/social security. On average, a smoker who dies 10 years earlier than the healthy non-smoker gives us a net cost savings of 32 cents per patient.

I don't personally believe in much regulation over smoking, though I find the "second-hand smoke" argument to be at least worth considering.  But the healthcare cost argument?  Is ghastly, and one of the reasons why some people get a little bent out of shape over the idea of national healthcare.

I mean, if we start thinking that, since government pays for healthcare, it should be able to regulate people's "health-related" activities... well, that's goodbye liberty, right?

So, let's not try to weasel past that argument by saying, "well... not smoking actually costs more"; let's stick by the stronger, more important message, that the government has no business telling people that they can't do things that are unhealthy for them.

 

This was just a funny article and I didn't mean to have any sort of political spin on it. 

I mean, if the goal was just to cut costs, we could just stop treating people period. I think even the article mentions that. But the question now is "how much is a life worth to you?"