cigs to hit $11/pack

[Simon Bar Sinister]

in NYC this summer: http://www.wibw.com/nationalnews/headlines/96888829.html

[WhiteLines]

OUTRAGEOUS, DAMN THEM GREEDHEADS

[Hellion]

Look at this to happen to everything else as well,esp food.

[Shaun]

Doesn't particularly bother me honestly, though all you smokers have my sympathy

[FarrIL]

This doesnt concern me. But, this is going to make things a bit more difficult for you smokers.

[Eevee]

Damn! That suuuuuucks

[phee]

Soon it will cost just as much to keep smoking, as it does to pay for the medical bills from the problems caused by smoking.

[Oh_My_Goth]

It's funny as hell that the taxes go to support health care...

[phee]

It's funny as hell that the taxes go to support health care...

It is!

[StormKnight (1)]

Maybe they can think of the extra tax as sacking it away for the future, or defraying costs for the rest of us. Consider:

Average costs:

-Lung cancer treatment per patient: $120,000+ (including surgery, radiation, follow-ups and palliative care (most lung cancers are found late)) (source, J Lung Cancer, November 2005) ((426,000 current cases+222,000 new cases a year)-150,000 deaths a year.) Adds up for a cancer that only 1 in 5 patients will be alive at 5 years, neh?

-Emphysema and COPD treatment per patient: $1500 a year starting (source, Resp Medicine, 2000) ((14.2 Million current cases+2million new cases)-400,000 deaths a year.))

Average spontaneous rate of lung cancer in non-smokers over a lifetime: 1.3-1.7% (10-15% of cancer patients never smoked)

Average rate of lung cancer in smokers over a lifetime (the majority of lung cancer patients): 17.2% for males, 11.6% for females (source for both, Can J of Public Health, November 1994.) Even if you stop smoking, it never goes all the way back to the spontaneous rate. But at least it is out of the double digit percentages.

Most cost effective way to fight this is prevention.

And for those concerned about taxes/government; A lot of this was picked up by medicaid/medicare in addition to private health insurance. (source, J Thoracic Cardiovascular Surg, 1996)

And of course, there is issue of big corporations of the tobacco companies that are intruding into your life for the habit.

Just a few bits to roll around your head.

Edited June 23, 2010 by StormKnight

[Soulrev]

This should concern all of us. Haven't any of you noticed, ever since tobacco regulation was handed over to the FDA, prices on tobacco have skyrocketed?

I say it should concern all of us, because, as Hellion said, it's not going to stop at tobacco. With this new healthcare plan I will bet my left testicle that they will (soon) start taxing foods that the FDA has deemed "bad for you" and those people who eat those food will "cost more to provide healthcare" because "they eat oreos".

Nah. Fuck it, let's all just be ignorant and let the government control every living aspect of our lives JUST A LITTLE BIT at a time and say "Oh, well.. That doesn't concern me" until the day you wake up and find out something has happened that DOES concern you. And you wonder why. Because you ALLOWED it to.