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Date: 12-Nov-02 @ 11:00 AM -
death and taxes
cheddar
Posts: 673
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I was chatting with a German Doctor about smoking outside a conference a few years back (both of us were outside having a puff), anyway,
We talked about prices and heavy taxes and I said apart from punitive taxation, it's fair enough because of the extra cost of healthcare for smokers. He corrected me. He said that Germany was thinking of bringing in heavy taxation as a way to offset health costs and they performed a study to justify it.
The results were major. They found that most smokers died within 2 years of there first major episode (heart attack/stroke/cancer) whereas non smokers tended to live 10 years and have more /other episodes. Since the most expensive aspect of (general) healthcare is the treatment (normally ongoing) during/following major episodes, non smokers cost the country more than the smokers who tend to shuffle off without longer term/multiple episode treatment being required. The result, Germany did not increase the tax on cigarettes.
So, since insurers will hit you hard if you say "entertainment" as your profession do we think that the gov should rebate/reduce tax for entertainers since they are much more likely to saving the coffers as they bend their bodies toward early graves