The health care costs of smoking

A large increase in the number of people who quit smoking may lower health care costs in the short run but would raise them in the long run. This was the conclusion reached by researchers who used life tables to estimate the change in health care costs over time if many smokers quit. Since smokers generally have poorer health, their health care costs are 40% higher than non-smokers' costs. However, if all smokers in a population quit, health care costs would initially drop but then rise to a higher rate than at present. This is because ex-smokers would live longer and would incur greater costs as they aged.