WASHINGTON - Jan. 7, 2020 - Top economists have reported that each American household is required to pay an extra $8000 a year in what they call a "poll tax" because pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, device manufacturers, and doctors unnecessarily drive up the costs of medical care so that the U.S. has the most expensive health care system, although it "delivers the worst health of any rich country."

They acknowledge that it will be difficult to change because of powerful interests lobbying against any changes which might reduce their incomes.

But Americans also pay an enormous additional tax of about $2500 for each household, which, unlike the larger one, can easily be slashed simply by requiring smokers to pay more for their health insurance, just as they have long been required to do for life insurance, says public interest law professor John Banzhaf.

According to the American Lung Association, smoking costs the U.S. economy more than $332 billion in direct health care costs and lost productivity every year; a huge expense unnecessarily imposed on all of us by only about 15% of the population.

Moreover, since smokers are concentrated in the lowest socioeconomic segment, they are those most likely to receive taxpayer financial support, and the least likely to contribute to the country's economic welfare.




These huge costs are now borne by the great majority of taxpayers who are not smokers (in the form of additional medical costs under Medicare, Medicaid, Veterans and Indian benefits, etc), nonsmokers with health insurance (in the form of bloated premiums and increased deductibles), and workers (in the form of fewer benefits and/or lower salaries).

Imposing personal responsibility on smokers by requiring them to pay for the added costs their smoking imposes would help many to do what most already want to do - quit.

This would slash these unnecessary costs, and help them and their families. Those who don't quit would then pay the costs they now impose on others.




This concept, sometimes known as "differential health insurance premiums," has been endorsed by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners [NAIC], and has already been put into practice by some companies. Thanks to two legal actions by Banzhaf, the federal government has approved charging smokers more for health insurance, and a 50% smoker surcharge is part of Obamacare.

So, while reforming our entire medical care and insurance system is very difficult and involves many powerful players, the U.S. could slash this huge smoker tax on each household easily, since it involves, and is caused and imposed on us by, only a tiny segment of the population with only limited political clout.

http://banzhaf.net/ jbanzhaf3ATgmail.com @profbanzhaf

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