Now I understand why I was harrassed to no end the last time I was in the hospital.
I was admitted because of a blood sugar issue, not a "smoking related" issue. From the time I got in there until I left the nurses insisted I NEEDED a patch because I wouldn't be able to smoke. I didn't want to sdmoke, I just wanted to get out of there.
The one that woke me up at 6am really took the cake. I had finally been able to actually get more than an hour's sleep at that point and she woke me up to offer me a patch. That was the ONLY reason she woke me. I blew a gasket at her. And told her point blank that the only time I had even thought of smoking a cigarette in the 18 hours I had been there was when one of them claimed I NEEDED a patch. My language was definitely not ladylike at that point and I offered no apologies for it, in fact I told her point blank I would not apologize for my language.
When she came in later, I also put the Doctor in her place over it. Doc told me the nurse complained about my behavior and my attitude was too damned bad about her. Me being a smoker had no bearing upon why I was there and since I was paying for being there I should not be harrassed about something unrelated to me being there. It was so very obvious that it was killing that doctor to have to agree that I was right and the nurses (and hospital policy) was wrong.
That was 18 months ago, I was 46 and all I needed to do was change my diet slightly. Every doctor I had to deal with over that incident actually had to choke when making the admission that me being a smoker had absolutely NO bearing on what was wrong. They have all been so brainwashed into the idea that all smokers are unhealthy they couldn't equate what I had done the day before with someone that smokes. I had spent the better part of the day harvesting a crop of habanero peppers, and the rest of the day and evening prepping them to make jelly.
According to the propaganda, a smoker can't do any physical labor.
And if a patient is going to continue to smoke, (some leave the building as the fire marshal will fine the hospital $$$), it's dangerous to also be on the patch.
Now if the federal government starts telling docs they are not going to pay his portion of the hospital bill unless he prescribes the patch, doctors are going to order it.
Right now the federal government is sending out random surveys to patients who were hospitalized. From that the government will gauge what the rate of reimbursement for Medicare patients will be. And what the federal government pays private insurance will follow suit.