What these figures do not reflect is the quality of life. These people are miserable in their later years. I have patients who are actually short of breath while sitting still. They cannot do anything physical and just seem to exist. The direct health-care costs associated with smoking are in excess of 16 billion dollars.
Nonsmokers contribute one hundred dollars per year to take care of smoking induced illnesses.
We pay this primarily through taxes and insurance premiums. Smoking directly causes thirty to forty percent of the 565,000 deaths from heart disease each year. Women who smoke and take birth control pills have a ten times greater risk of dying from a heart attack than nonsmokers. Your chance of developing lung cancer is increased 11 times if you smoke. The nonsmoking spouse of a smoker has double the chance of developing lung cancer just from being exposed to his or her spouse's smoke.