Smokers cost society less in total health care costs

[Niflmir]

These are actually some old findings, subtitled Prevention No Cure for Increasing Health Expenditure. The basic idea being that, although the actual health related costs of smokers (and obese people) are higher, because non-smokers and the thin live longer, they run up higher costs in total health care expenditure during years when they are retired.

The basic idea being that people are productive until about the age they retire, and during that time are contributing. After that time they are basically draining what they already produced, since smokers produce just as much as non-smokers, but die earlier, they leave the world with the greatest contribution!

 

[Cannuck]

These are actually some old findings, subtitled Prevention No Cure for Increasing Health Expenditure. The basic idea being that, although the actual health related costs of smokers (and obese people) are higher, because non-smokers and the thin live longer, they run up higher costs in total health care expenditure during years when they are retired.

The basic idea being that people are productive until about the age they retire, and during that time are contributing. After that time they are basically draining what they already produced, since smokers produce just as much as non-smokers, but die earlier, they leave the world with the greatest contribution!

Nothing new here. Sin taxes have always been a cash generator for governments.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

Well the simple solution is to just shoot everybody at their retirement party. Problem solved.

 

[Cannuck]

Well the simple solution is to just shoot everybody at their retirement party. Problem solved.

Works for me.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

Works for me.

My party will be at an undisclosed location.

 

[Tonington]

Well the simple solution is to just shoot everybody at their retirement party. Problem solved.

Turn them into food. Another problem solved.

 

[petros]

Balongna already smells like old people. I won't go near the stuff.

 

[Bar Sinister]

Balongna already smells like old people. I won't go near the stuff.

I resent that. I might be full of baloney, but I don't smell like it.

BTW regarding the post, any drug is dangerous if it it used on a large enough scale. Tobacco and alcohol currently cause the most problems in society simply because they are the most widely used. Increase marijuana use and it would probably result in more harmful incidents concerning the drug.

 

[talloola]

the money spent on a patient who has been diagnosed with lung cancer must be overwhelming till his/her death,
and can include more than one surgery, and many months and years of drugs and effort to save the patient,
and I can imagine, could easily amount to 'more', than a healthy person living many many years longer.

 

[Dexter Sinister]

Well the simple solution is to just shoot everybody at their retirement party. Problem solved.

Well, okay, as long as it's just everybody but me.

 

[bobnoorduyn]

the money spent on a patient who has been diagnosed with lung cancer must be overwhelming till his/her death,
and can include more than one surgery, and many months and years of drugs and effort to save the patient,
and I can imagine, could easily amount to 'more', than a healthy person living many many years longer.

In my experience, the treatment period isn't really that long; friends and relatives who have succumed to the disease didn't last 3 years after diagnosis and treatment. For those wh survived, the treatment didn't last more than a few months. (I'm also lumping in folks with different types of cancer, many of whom didn't smoke and led relatively healthy lifestyles). My treatment and recovery had me off work for three months, one surgery, and yearly follow ups, 11 years and no reccurance, so I'm one of the lucky ones. Smoking causes other ailments, but smoking related cancer seems to either take you fairly quickly, or goes into remission quickly, (mine wasn't in the lung). There are many other lifestyle choices that lead to much more expensive and lengthy long term care.

 

[Cannuck]

Short of dying from case of lead injection or dropping dead from a heart attack, the largest amount of health care dollars will be spent on an individual in the last year of their life. Shooting people at 65 is the fiscally responsible thing to do.

 

[mentalfloss]

Break coming up soon.

I will do my part and be fiscally responsible.

 

[JLM]

These are actually some old findings, subtitled Prevention No Cure for Increasing Health Expenditure. The basic idea being that, although the actual health related costs of smokers (and obese people) are higher, because non-smokers and the thin live longer, they run up higher costs in total health care expenditure during years when they are retired.

The basic idea being that people are productive until about the age they retire, and during that time are contributing. After that time they are basically draining what they already produced, since smokers produce just as much as non-smokers, but die earlier, they leave the world with the greatest contribution!

Did you factor in the cost of heart by passes?

Short of dying from case of lead injection or dropping dead from a heart attack, the largest amount of health care dollars will be spent on an individual in the last year of their life. Shooting people at 65 is the fiscally responsible thing to do.

Shooting SOME people in their 40s might not be a bad idea either, especially ones who are obnoxious posters. :lol:

 

[CDNBear]

Advocating murder, is a troubling descent into idiocy.

 

[JLM]

Advocating murder, is a troubling descent into idiocy.

Well maybe just the knee caps. :lol:

 

[Kreskin]

These are actually some old findings, subtitled Prevention No Cure for Increasing Health Expenditure. The basic idea being that, although the actual health related costs of smokers (and obese people) are higher, because non-smokers and the thin live longer, they run up higher costs in total health care expenditure during years when they are retired.

The basic idea being that people are productive until about the age they retire, and during that time are contributing. After that time they are basically draining what they already produced, since smokers produce just as much as non-smokers, but die earlier, they leave the world with the greatest contribution!

I've been saying this for years. It's an easy tax grab.

the money spent on a patient who has been diagnosed with lung cancer must be overwhelming till his/her death,
and can include more than one surgery, and many months and years of drugs and effort to save the patient,
and I can imagine, could easily amount to 'more', than a healthy person living many many years longer.

A healthy person has to get sick and die sooner or later. That cost won't change, but the "healthier" live longer collecting social benefits longer on top of the end of life care etc.

 

[JLM]

I've been saying this for years. It's an easy tax grab.


A healthy person has to get sick and die sooner or later. That cost won't change, but the "healthier" live longer collecting social benefits longer on top of the end of life care etc.

It would be interesting to know what percentage of seniors die in an uncomplicated fashion such as sudden heart attack or pneumonia. :smile:

 

[Cannuck]

It would be interesting to know what percentage of seniors die in an uncomplicated fashion such as sudden heart attack or pneumonia. :smile:

Pneumonia or heart attacks are usually a complication from something else. People with healthy lungs don't usually die from pneumonia. Heart attacks by themselves, usually strike younger men

 

[JLM]

Pneumonia or heart attacks are usually a complication from something else. People with healthy lungs don't usually die from pneumonia. Heart attacks by themselves, usually strike younger men

That didn't answer the phenomena I brought up.