should smokers and drinkers pay more for health care?

Originally Posted by Eleo

I have a question, how are smokers medically discerned from nonsmokers?

Eleo, they determine it with a saliva test, and it's really cool. My husband and I had to have it done a couple of years ago when we upped our life insurance. You have to hold a cotton swab between your cheek and gums for a couple of minutes. Some laboratory analyzes it and they can determine if you've smoked in the past five years. Pretty cool, huh?

To answer the question, though, I don't know much about socialized healthcare systems, but here in the US, I definitely think that smokers should pay more. Between that and the fact that their out-of-pocket expenses for copays, etc. will be higher by default simply because of not being as healthy, maybe more people will stop smoking.

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