You’re just jealous because I escaped . . . .

It's a valid fear. Don't know how they'll justify it, but I'm sure a group will try.
The pendulum will swing the other way eventually. The number of smokers will have decreased enough that taxation of the habit will not be profitable, and the hundreds of pet projects it has funded will go after another bad habit to get their $$ (I'm hoping obesity... damn fat f#cks)...

Then, when no one's looking... people will start to smoke again.

Or the fatties will get really pissed, and politicians will realize taxing that large a percentage of the voting bloc is bad business....

Actually the "Obesity" thing will cost FAR MORE.....why? Because for some obesity has been a part of their life since childhood.....hence so have the issues that come with it. VS smokers issues typically come after a couple decades or so of smoking!

You guys are beginning to scare me.
I wanted health insurance but I wanted it for FREE. Well, free after the necessary maintenance fees.

No one has really read the plan yet, have they? ...and understood all the implications once it's implemented.
I'll reserve my judgment until I see it in action. If it converts doctors to lower paid medical clerks who monitor marginal healthcare (as they currently do) so be it.


Now let's move on to tort reform, simplify our legal code, & turn lawyers into minimum wage law clerks which is what they richly deserve.
Then we can focus on accountants who make a living off an unnecessarily complicated tax structure... BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHA!

TMC is correct.
I haven't looked it up in a while, but if I recall (and it'd probably behoove all of us to actually research this) the obese cost A LOT to die. First they get diabetes... that goes on for decades (and insulin is actually an expensive drug to manufacture) then they start getting complications from diabetes, multiple hospital visits, treatments, amputations etc. Then they finally have a heart attack.

If smoking kills someone it's usually just a few visits, or a bout of lung cancer... not cheap, but at this time not usually a lifelong treatment. It kills you comparatively quickly.

What anti-smoking people fail to recognize in their "smoking costs" numbers is that EVERYONE gets something and dies of it. The longer you avoid dying of a car wreck or school shooting, the more likely you are to get a cancer of some sort. Hell, in the end almost everyone will die of a heart issue or a cancer issue. It's ALWAYS expensive to die. Smokers just tend to have that expense a few years earlier. As long as smoking doesn't kill someone before they finish paying into the system, it's likely no more expensive than a non-smoker.