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Cigarettes and smoking kill over 440,000 Americans every year from cancer, heart disease and emphysema, and account for nearly $100 billion in healthcare expenses annually. What should the government do about this?
#Response DateOther (please specify)
1.6/11/2008 11:41:00 AMThis is a difficult and more complex problem, we have other equally high public health issues that involve personal behavior that we do not regulate
2.6/11/2008 12:41:00 PMBan advertising and raise taxes
3.6/11/2008 5:14:00 PMConvince people to not start smoking and to stop if they are already smokers
4.6/11/2008 8:17:00 PMSuspend medicare/ medicaid coverage to smokers
5.6/12/2008 12:27:00 AMfund research on better stop-smoking drugs
6.6/12/2008 12:58:00 AMThe government should either ban this lethal product (and put up with the black market), or shut up and pay up. The states should permit health insurance companies to charge patients who smoke a higher premium for their insurance product than they charge for patients who do not smoke. This is a better smoking deterent than taxation. The states permit higher premiums on life insurance products for smokers than for non-smokers, why not for health insurance? Why should healthy non-smokers subsidized the health insurance premiums for irresponsible persons who continue to smoke despite the well known increased health risk? Why should their risk behavior be subsidized?
7.6/12/2008 2:03:00 AMIf you really research this issue the stats are incorrect
8.6/12/2008 3:59:00 AMEmphasize patient education and ways to quit smoking
9.6/12/2008 4:37:00 AMWhy don't you ban fast food? Oh yeah, congress has protected them with the personal responsibility in food act -- no torm reform for us though
10.6/23/2008 12:49:00 PMCigarette smokers ought to pay their share of insurance expenditures for such health related issues.
11.6/23/2008 3:00:00 PMIt saves more than $100 Billion in retirement costs
12.6/23/2008 6:03:00 PMand Ban the advertising and marketing of all tobacco products
13.6/24/2008 3:02:00 AMPatients who smoke and practice other unhealthy lifestyle habits should pay three times as much for health insurance as those who don't. End of problem.
14.6/24/2008 4:27:00 AMtobacco company should pay medicare
15.6/24/2008 7:54:00 AMSend out drug reps to every household who smokes and then have Congress penalize the household member who allowed a drug rep to influence their decision.
16.6/25/2008 2:28:00 AMtax increase goes COMPLETELY to fund medicare and social securtiy
17.6/26/2008 2:07:00 AMBy continuing to discourage use via campaigns targeted at kids and
18.6/26/2008 2:26:00 AMBy continuing to discourage use via campaigns targeted at kids and