[hopespringseternal]

I doubt it...they may save the govt money on social security payments since they don't collect as long, but in general smokers have a lot more, and a lot more expensive ailments that need to be paid for by somebody...nobody justs drops dead from smoking...its usually a long drawn out and expensive (and painful) demise.

SS payments are part of the deal, but not all. Nonsmokers might live twenty years (or more) longer, ten of which may require a lot of expensive medical care.

Smokers, on the other hand tend to expire pretty quickly if the smoking catches up with them. You are talking about months vs years.

[Anthony Bruni]

These sorts of smoker cost-benefit analyses are slippery because of elasticity in the definitions of terms such as "smoking-related illness." (e.g. Does starting a fire while smoking in bed count?)

Anyway, I don't have hard numbers on this, but my guess is that the amount of health care $$ spent in the last 6 months of life does not vary much between smokers and nonsmokers.

Some numbers I do know: on average, smokers live 7 years less than non-smokers. Smokers have roughly a 1 in 3 chance of dying of a smoking-related illness.

I'm a nonsmoker by the way, but I think we've gone way too far down this road. I live in NY where smoking in bars will soon be banned. The left is always calling conservatives fascists. Well, IMO the anti-smoking zealotry of late is actual fascism.