Thursday, April 29, 2010

Smoking-related health costs horribly inflated

What the heck is going on with the estimated health-related costs of smoking? The generally accepted and publicised sum has been about $250 million and remember smoking rates are decreasing;



And here according to the Ministry of Health;

H3) What are the economic and other costs of smoking?

Smoking costs all New Zealanders. It:

* costs our health system over $200 million per year (1992 dollars) to treat smoking-related illnesses


But the DomPost this morning is saying;



This is blatantly about building public support for tax hikes and turning non-smokers against smokers who have apparently overnight incurred a 760 percent increase in their health bill.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lindsay

it's well known that smokers are a net credit to the health and welfare system. By dying sooner, smokers save productive kiwis billions every year in forgone pensions, and - very often - many benefits also.

Policies that stop smoking and stop drinking only increase the tax burden on the productive



PS: Nick "commie" Clegg is promosing to cut UK govt spending by 25% overnight. Why can't even ACT manage that here??

Manolo said...

Lies and more lies from a mediocre newspaper.

I'm getting closer to cancel my subscription to the Dom Post.

MacDoctor said...

I think you will find that the Dom-Post is actually quoting the total annual cost of smoking including the amortised costs of loss of productivity due to disability and early death. The actual health-related costs are about 250 million, as you point out.

Of course, the loss of productivity estimated is not a tax-payer cos, per se.

Russ Benk said...

I too noticed the sudden increase in claimed health cost and point you towards this excellent article:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/opinion/perspective/4311009/Ministrys-figures-need-analysis