Smoking ban

No one ever notes that smokers tend to experience a shorter lifespan saving the Healthcare system $$$$.

Healthcare costs are based on heath/illness, not on longevity. My 69 year old friend with a healthy lifestyle has incurred dramatically less healthcare costs than his 57 year old brother who has been afflicted with MS.

Some behaviours, including smoking, result in increased health care costs even if fewer years are lived. From the British Medical Journal…

S4 appendix reports the unadjusted monthly healthcare costs between the study groups. Generally, smokers incurred higher healthcare costs than non-smokers for hospitalisations, physician services, ER visits, home care services and complex continuing care.

Focusing on specific types of healthcare costs, smokers had approximately 30% higher hospitalisation costs, 43% higher ER visit costs, 23% higher physician visit costs and 30% higher home care costs than non-smokers. Overall, total monthly healthcare costs were higher among smokers ($5649 ± $7169) than non-smokers ($4704 ± $6737).

Impact of smoking on health system costs among cancer patients in a retrospective cohort study in Ontario, Canada