The Public Eye
Finally, I feel better about smoking. As a hopelessly addicted consumer of nicotine, I was excited this week when I stumbled across a report by the Centers for Disease Control that says the healthcare costs associated with obesity are about $147 billion a year.
At first, I thought that was great news, because the healthcare costs of smoking, which prevents me from weighing 700 pounds, have been estimated at less than $100 billion. I figured that meant I was saving nonsmokers a very attractive 32 percent. After all, if I don't smoke, I most certainly will eat. And eat. And eat.
You could say we might not even need health care reform if everyone joined me outside to burn one. We'd send $47 billion in medical expenses up in smoke.
Well, probably not.
That's because the CDC estimates there are 72 million obese people in the country versus 32 million smokers and, if my math is correct, that means the annual medical outlay for an obese person is about $1,000 less than it is for a smoker.
Further, it may be coincidental, but the number of obese people in this country has climbed as the number of smokers has gone down, which suggests that many obese people used to be smokers but are now saving the country $1,000 per person a year.
Consequently, if all smokers quit and ate instead, there would be a real savings of $32 billion a year and maybe what government really ought to do as part of any healthcare reform package is provide people like me with vouchers for free cheesecakes, burgers, fries and such as an incentive to save.
It also suggests that people are going to do something that's bad for them no matter what because it's fun and if the government wants to help, instead of wasting money telling us what we shouldn't do, it can spend it on finding us the best vices for the money.
The next CDC report I want to see is, "Bad Things You Can Do and Save."
Even more ironic, though, is that despite everything we hear about the economic impacts of obesity and smoking, nothing cost more in terms of healthcare expenditures than getting old.
And that is what the CDC is urging all of us with bad habits to become: old people.
On the other hand, maybe it wouldn't be so good to see a CDC report that says, "Old People and What Can Be Done About Them."
