Booze & Fags Cost NHS Less
Those amongst us who crave a cigarette and cream cone (or five) every break time have been the victims of a long term guilt trip about how much we cost society with our increased health bills and trips to the hospital. Well no more. By karking it before old age sets in, the obese and lung-damaged actually cost less over their lifetime. Tanya Letto reports.
Being good to yourself might be bad for society. According to Dutch researchers, fat smokers are less of a burden on the state than the fit and health conscious. By dint of dying young, tubby tokers don’t force the state to pay for treatment during a lingering old age.
The research, published in the Public Library of Science (PLoS), found that whilst smokers run up a lifetime health bill of £165,000 and the obese cost on average £187,000, people of normal weight suck a whopping £210,000 out of the system over the course of their lives.
However, the researchers, from the Netherlands’ National Institute for Public Health and Environment, point out that encouraging the entire populace to pile on the pounds and smoke themselves into an early grave isn’t necessarily to the general benefit of mankind.There are many other costs associated with ill-health caused by smoking and obesity that the study didn’t take into account. Writing about the study, Professor Klim McPherson, of Oxford University, highlighted the cost of missed work days, lost through illness, as an example. We should perhaps also take into account the growing cost to fire services of removing the uber-obese from their houses via crane.
So in the end it looks as though the intrepid fatty-philes and ciggy-suckers amongst us can now lead our short, sweet (well, puddingy) lives in peace; no longer can the health conscious masses complain about the burden we place on the health service.
Found out here how not exercising can also help the environment.
Or try these for size:
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Image: Manuel Sierra
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