A smoker’s ‘rant’

You are not dead YET! When someone smokes in public they advocate smoking… they are a walking BILLBOARD, If you have smoked for 40 years I find it hard to believe you NEVER do it in public. you are ENCOURAGING everyone to smoke CIGARETTES!! We are not SUPERIORS, some of US are FORMER smokers, who SUCKED IT UP and quit, yes it was HARD. SMOKERS drive up costs of MEDICARE or other free health care for those who dont have insurance and end up with CANCER!!!!. You are not inviting me into your home YET! if you continue to smoke, you are inviting HOSPICE… paid for by TAXPAYERS and donations of OTHERS…..ME!
The smoking Rant is not funny, it is ridiculous!
THE DAUGHTER did something right not YOU! 40 years of smoking and you TRIED to quit…. TRY AGAIN! Its SELFISH. I am a former smoker who quit for the love of family and Life. If I can do it anyone can…you are only angry because you don’t want to quit, or you are weak minded! The reporters are doing they’re jobs! If you are tired of being “bitched at” QUIT!!!! Otherwise, better get some good boxing gloves, and head gear!!! Better yet, an insurance plan, I am tired of my tax money going toward free health care for people who do not practice living a healthy lifestyle!!!!

Just because you were able to quit truly doesn’t mean anyone can. We’re all individuals. Obese people also drive up the cost of health care. Do you go to restaurants & give them dirty looks or tell them to stop eating so much? I doubt it. Where do you draw the line? Why is it any different? As a former smoker, I think most of us who used to smoke become the most self righteous about smoking. It’s ridiculous. I like to think your average person is intelligent enough not to want to smoke because they see a 50 year old person doing it. Really, your arguments are selective. Be concerned with your health & that of your family. Leave adults who are doing something perfectly legal alone.

I’m so glad someone finally said what was on the tip of my tongue! I am a former smoker and I have shared sassy’s viewpoint through smoking, quiting, and now continuing not to smoke. Quit treating smokers like petty criminals!

Yes, you do have to have food to live but eating too much of the wrong thing is just as harmful as smoking. That would be considered a bad choice, would it not? Wouldn’t you consider that “your healthcare” too? Yet you say nothing to obese people. Why go after only one group who makes what you consider to be unhealthy choices? It’s a bit selective, isn’t it? I think once you start trying to police other people’s habits & lifestyles it can get out of control quickly. No one has the right to be self righteous. I don’t care if you quit. So did I. Yippee for us. Other people have the right to smoke if they choose. If an adult wants to smoke, it’s none of my -or your- business. As for children, it’s not the world’s job to make sure other people’s children don’t smoke. That starts & ends at home. I have a child but I know it’s up to me.

I’ve quit cigarettes twice and cigars twice (inhaled them). I have not smoked in a while but the only way I ever had any luck was cold turkey and 3 of the 4 times occurred when I went on a multi-week wilderness trip – ran out of smokes… suffered for a few days and then returned to civilization thankful that I had stopped.

I won’t start again because I know how hard it is to quit so I’m pretty sympathetic to those that smoke – many would quit but it is powerfully addicting.

But you’re fooling yourself if you think it won’t cost others. It will.. even if you have insurance because you’re one of the ones that ultimately drives the costs up when you finally do need very expensive medical care – even if it is not for Cancer but cardiovascular; smoking destroys your cardiovascular system also and when you die – as we all will – the way you die as a smoker can be pretty ugly if you do’t die quick.

But for all you ex-smokers out there I have a really ugly hypothetic question.

What if they made a cigarette or cigar that would not cause cancer or alternatively a cure was found for lung cancer, etc, you get my drift.

How many would go back to smoking?

see… I told you it was an ugly question!!!!

YF

In reply to the letter writer’s question, “HONESTLY, if I drop dead today, does that affect you? You would MISS me? ” My answer, to be blunt, would be NO and NO. Your dropping dead isn’t the issue however. My great-grandfather died in 1973 from emphysema after smoking for about 60 years. He had an agonizing existence for a relatively brief period of time and passed away at home one night. His healthcare expenses were minimal, because there was little that could be done back then. Today, emphysema patients are living much longer with better quality of life, but at a tremendous cost. So, the real issue is, if you get emphysema or another smoking related disease-are you going to want treatment and medication to extend your life and improve your quality of life? If so, then your habit most certainly is affecting those who pay insurance premiums and really, all taxpayers. Who do you think pays for Medicare? You said you worked in healthcare, don’t you realize that when a medical facility loses money on a patient because they can’t pay, it gets factored into the cost of doing business, which results in higher charges to patients who can pay and insurance companies, which results in higher premiums? If you decline treatment and suffer at home until you die or call Dr. Kevorkian, then your argument about not affecting others or their healthcare premiums is valid. Otherwise, it doesn’t even come close to holding water. The problem in this country is everyone is so self-centered-it’s all about I, I, I, me, me, me and the “choices” I should get to make. I’m fine with people having choices, but I don’t think that ANYONE should choose to engage in unhealthy habits, be they smoking, over eating, drinking, drugging, promiscuity, etc and then expect top notch treatment at others’ expense when their habits catch up with them. We will NEVER realize true healthcare reform in this country until people start being accountable for their actions and quit dismissing irresponsibility as a choice which we must all support.

Smoking proves that evolution still operates – the nonsurvival of the stupidest.

pretty tough there Derarzt but I generally support it with some reservations. What would you do with those who quit?

I don’t think we can or should turn down treatment but I’m pretty much for tagging any illness that is, in the opinion of the physician, due to smoking – added to the tally of costs that are then added to the cost of cigarettes until we reach rough parity between what smokers pay for cigarettes and what smokers subsequently need in health care. Let’s call it an insurance fund and the premiums are in the cost of the cigarettes.

I’d be curious to know what the actual medical costs per pack of cigarettes really is.

anyone have any ideas?

Is it $5 or $10 ? more? less?

interestingly enough – the Domenici / Rivlin balanced budget plan recommended that a tax be put on sugar drinks to pay for the health care costs of obese and those with diabetes.