Tobacco

Smoking Actually Cuts Health Costs

A study in the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine points out that nonsmokers incur greater health costs simply because they live longer.

  • If every smoker quit today, national health-care costs would rise about 7 percent, the study revealed.

  • Based on data from the Netherlands, researchers found that lifetime health costs for a smoking man are $72,700 on average, versus $83,400 for a nonsmoking male.

  • For women, the figures are $94,700 for a smoker, versus $111,000 for a nonsmoker.

  • The life expectancy for smoking men is 69.7 years and 75.6 years for women who smoke; 70.0 years and 81.6 years, respectively, for those who do not smoke.

If everyone were to quit smoking, health-care costs would fall initially since smoking-related diseases would drop. But the benefit would reverse in about 15 years, the researchers estimated, as more people lived long enough to suffer other costly medical conditions.

In a related development, a new study established that laws designed to cut down on teen smoking are meeting with less than stunning success. Some 58 percent of teens in communities which enforce tough tobacco sales laws say they were "hardly ever refused" tobacco sales. In communities with lax enforcement procedures, 63 percent of teens said they could get cigarettes.

Sources: Doug Levy, "Kicking Habit Will Increase Health Costs," and "Teens Find Ways Around Laws Meant To Curb Smoking," both in USA Today, October 9, 1997.

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