Is it OK ?? To let half a million people will die from smoking-related diseases this year? Seems like an issue of freedom to indulge in a poison if you chose to. Then on the other hand, you the taxpayer are the ones picking up the tax tab for their folly. "Smoking is costing the nation nearly $300 billion in medical bills, lost productivity and other costs, officials said." How about smokers being refused medical treatment for any of the long list of diseases associated with smoking? Just let them die, as that appears to be what they chose to do. Lung cancer and heart disease have long been known to be the top causes of death for smokers. Friday's report adds more entries to the official list of smoking-caused diseases, many of them costly chronic illnesses that people struggle with for years. Included are Type 2 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, erectile dysfunction, the macular degeneration that can blind older adults, and the birth defects cleft palate and cleft lip. Also new to the list are two additional cancers - liver and colorectal. http://apnews.myway.com//article/20140117/DABCLPJO0.html
Golly, Batman. Ever think that Obamacare/Romneycare/health care insurance reform just might reduce the tax tab? Just curious.
sadly anti-smoking fanatics are even attacking e-cigs which has allowed many people to quit smoking.... you way the risk, for some smoking will never be a problem, smoking doesn't guarantee a lung disease, but it does increase the odds, for some they may even live longer do to the stress release of smoking, because as we all know... stress kills too .
Likely so since they added a $1400 sin tax onto the premiums of smokers in the ACA. If everybody quit smoking, the government would go broke with all the taxes they heave on them, but hey, as long as people smoke unfiltered pot instead of tobacco, it is all good man.
Individual choice. Personal responsibility. If you want to kill yourself smoking, go ahead. Just don't stick me with the bill.
Maybe we can use their cigarette taxes to pay for their health care instead of every other use. Then no one would have a reason to (*)(*)(*)(*)(*). - - - Updated - - - That is fine. Let them keep their cigarette taxes and it won't be an issue.
With all he nonsense in the bill, THIS is my biggest problem with Obamacare. Now that we "pay for everyone's healthcare", people feel they should be able dictate others lives. Are we going to fine fat people next? They kill far more than cigarettes do...
Where the hell have you been they already are. Hitler hated cigarettes and was pushing national fitness days. We seem to be headed the same direction.
Never gave that a thought Robin. BUT that is not the question or the premise of the OP. Please re-read or read the OP.
Fun fact, smokers cost less in health costs. Google it. Also since we re in the business of charging people for creating extra costs why are you not going after people who play sports? What about people with stressful lives? How about people who dont smoker or drink and are likely to live tge lingest thus cost the system more over their lives due to chronic illnesses? Oh thats right we can only go after social pariahs otherwise we d just be talking out our ass.
ironically it's the longer one lives the more they cost in terms of healthcare.. so maybe smokers should get a discount if they feel it's such a sure thing they will die young because they smoke
Well you still have the deaths and diseases to deal with. I guess lost lives of Americans is acceptable exchange for freedoms. The corporations will just have to suffer the losses in lost time productivity. 5.6 million of today's children and teens will go on to die prematurely by their choice, or parents second hand smoke. Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure, nontraumatic lower-limb amputations, and new cases of blindness among adults in the United States. Diabetes is a major cause of heart disease and stroke. Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States. http://diabetes.niddk.nih.gov/dm/pubs/statistics/#fast
That seems sensible. The tax can't be too high of a percentage though. Only 10 percent of smokers get lung cancer but 20% get emphysema, so the percentage of all smokers that get a somewhat debilitating and costly disease is somewhere between 20 and 30% with just those two diseases out of many more that I'm not counting. I'd support having the sumptuary tax on items like alcohol and tobacco pay for the increased health expenses brought about by the use of those items. The way I see it, it'd put the onus on the people that are doing the consuming to pay for their own healthcare costs. I just wanted to drop those two cents into the well and I'll let someone else run the numbers.
Your issues appear to be beyond the scope of the OP. Smokers cost less in health costs? LMAO! Yeah, I did google it!!
honestly my biggest problem stems from not caring. I was trying to quit along with my girlfriend but after she left ive found I no longer care. Im still considering buying a better ecigarette since while it worked I used it, but I still enjoy a cigarette with my drink, and since she left there has been a lot of drink.
Im confused, are yoy laugh8ng at yourself for posting this tripe? Btw my post is very much on topic, the topic being that you believe a smokers life is worth so little health resources should not be spent on them, the justification being that they cost more (they dont ). Personally I find it to be an absolutely disgusting argument but I exoect no less from the anti-smokers who appear to simply need someone to hate. Unless smokers raped your family and forcibly gave you mouth to mouth with ephasima I cant see why so many people would have such hate for a small group of people other than to make themselves feel better by kicking down an easy target. Weak minded fools really.
Actually I am questioning if we should spend it on them. Why should we waste valuable resources on people bent on killing themselves for their own indulgence? I feel they should have the freedom to do so if they chose, just don't take resources needed for others that want to live, and of course tax the hell out of them for what they actually cost society. I am laughing at the obvious tripe you laid down, your claim that smokers cost less in health costs and to goggle it, where is shows the costs are enormous for their folly. They each cost a corporation $6,000. a year, so should corporations be free not to hire smokers? There are a lot of costly issues besides the low tax they currently pay to clog up the health care system. Why should they be allowed on heart transplant lists for example, when other recipients did not deliberately ruin their hearts with drugs? There should be prioritys and standards set. So I am questioning this, not saying I agree or disagree, just looking at all the possibilities. A total cost for everything a smoker does in society should be factored in, and then tax them according to their use, and let them grow their own. Perhaps quarantine them away from society so second hand smoke isn't a health issue.
So depending on what you typed in you skipped the first 4 web links, all of which pointed out that smokers cost the healthcare system less, and instead focused on link 5 which states that smokers cost comoanies more, which is off topic because by the OP and by what you were respinding to we are talking about healthcare costs not company expense (the expense being that smokers take breaks in the day, apparently nonsmokers are nose to the grindwheel all day long. It also doesnt account for social smokers like myself who dont smoke unless drinking with friends ). You also clearly do not think the life ofna smoker is as valueable as the life of a nonsmoker. Its disgusting and I dont think I have anything more to say to you. To devalue someones life because they do something you dont like is absolutely wrong. I may nor agree with what people do with their lives, but im sure as hell not going to say that people who do item X (where X is not an aggressive harmful act like theft, rape, or murder) should be separated from society and left in the streets to die.
How many people die each year from drugs and drinking? At least smokers pay a heavy tax premiuum for cigarettes. How many die from obesity?
I have a similar story. Most people who start smoking, start when they are young. I didn't smoke until about 2 years ago in my mid 20s. I had always been a casual smoker, meaning I'd have a cigarette when I was drinking. Mostly because my group of friends and the girl I was seeing smoked, and I didn't like being left behind as the designated coat/purse security guard. The girl I was seeing then left me, and I was crazy in love with her (only time that ever happened), and I started to drink like every day. Which then led me to start smoking all the time. So I actually became a smoker in my mid 20s.
Tell you what, say I put you in the garage with 50 smokers for an hour and then put you in the same garage with one car running for an hour. Which one do you think you'll come out from?
