Posted on 01/29/2013 7:10:13 PM PST by walford
Faced with the high cost of caring for smokers and overeaters, experts say society must grapple with a blunt question: Instead of trying to penalize them and change their ways, why not just let these health sinners die prematurely from their unhealthy habits?
Annual health care costs are roughly $96 billion for smokers and $147 billion for the obese, the government says. These costs accompany sometimes heroic attempts to prolong lives, including surgery, chemotherapy and other measures.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
I’m betting the extra 7.125% sales tax on top of that in MN isn’t included in the data. I also wonder... isn’t there some fed tax lumped into the price of cigs too? The chart linked in post 35 only shows data for state and local taxes...
in MN, the fed excise tax of 1.01, plus the state and local taxes - along with sales tax amounts to a total of 2.97 on a 5 dollar pack of smokes.
3/5ths of the cost is taxes. I’m pretty sure the tax revenue outstrips the medical cost to the average taxpayer...
All this is just another form of bigotry.
Tobacco is a plant that can grow almost anywhere.
It grows wild in the Sierra Nevada range, west of where I live. Have ridden horseback thru big patches of it.
/johnny
The federal tax of $1.01 is NOT included in those figures,nor is the state sales tax.
In MA the tobacco excise tax is subject to the sales tax.
I don’t know about other states.
.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.