| HappySqurriel said: Just as a question, why is it fair to expect people to pay for their own healthcare costs through higher taxes on a choice they make but it isn't fair to expect people to pay for their own healthcare costs from a private company? |
Because this way provides a standard level of healthcare for the smoker and the entire population. I see healthcare as a right and not a commodity and socialised healthcare provides it as a right, and to provide it as a right it requires funding from somewhere. For example;
70% of two parent families on income support in the UK spend >15% of their household budget on cigarettes. These people have no way of paying for treatment when they contract lung cancer in a true private healthcare system as they have no real money*. But with the money they have contributed via tobacco taxes, in a public healthcare system they will be guarenteed a certain level of treatment.
*Additionally, in a private system they wont pay much tax on cigarettes so they can afford to smoke more, meaning that the eventual treatmnent they require will often be expensive and severe.
