Besides the enormous health consequences of smoking, there are also enormous economic consequences as well.
It is conservatively estimated that, in 1993, $50 billion were spent in direct medical care costs:
- $39.9 billion for hospitals
- $20.2 billion for physicians
- $9.7 billion for nursing homes
- $8.9 billion for prescription drugs
- $1.9 billion for home health care1
These estimates underestimate the overall costs as they do not include such things as:
- burn care resulting from smoking-related fires
- perinatal care for low-birth-weight infants of mothers who smoke
- diseases caused by exposure to environmental tobacco smoke
- premature smoking-related morbidity and premature mortality2
1 Rice D. Economic costs of substance abuse, 1995. Proc AAP. 1999;111(2)
2 MMWR.1994;43(26):469-472. |
