Aren't they going about it the wrong way? To cut health costs, they should enforce smoking: Smokers die about, what - 8? years younger, and those are expensive years health-wise. Smokers also have shorter final illnesses, and it's the final illness that's most expensive.
Not in my family they don't. I thank you for working to pay for my 8 70-85 year old uncles' entitlement programs and Social Security, Medicare.
Now shut up and get back to work, they need your wages to pay for their retirement and healthcare.
You are correct that studies show that the existence of smoking helps government’s financial balance sheet on a net basis. That is, the money saved by government due to smokers’ statistically shorter lives (e. g., less Social Security and pensions) plus the amount government receives in tobacco taxes plus government’s windfall from tobacco litigation settlements exceeds increased health care costs that government pays for smokers over the course of their lives.