Happy Saturday to all the internet denizens of AROCW.
I wanted to throw an interesting nugget out into the health care reform debate.
Approximately 15% of Americans lack health insurance. Of the non-Latinos in the 15% who are uninsured, 40% are smokers. The average pack of fags is $4.50 or so depending on the state, and the average smokers smokes 1.5 packs a day. This means that the average smoker spends $6.00 a day on average on smokes, or $180 a month.
You can purchase private health insurance for far less than $180 a month.
So basically, Obama wants to cover people who could afford private health insurance but choose instead to purchase tobacco.
Makes a lot of sense to me.
I wanted to throw an interesting nugget out into the health care reform debate.
Approximately 15% of Americans lack health insurance. Of the non-Latinos in the 15% who are uninsured, 40% are smokers. The average pack of fags is $4.50 or so depending on the state, and the average smokers smokes 1.5 packs a day. This means that the average smoker spends $6.00 a day on average on smokes, or $180 a month.
You can purchase private health insurance for far less than $180 a month.
So basically, Obama wants to cover people who could afford private health insurance but choose instead to purchase tobacco.
Makes a lot of sense to me.
Dude, in what universe? http://www.smartmoney.com/spending/deals/buying-private-health-insurance-14819/
ReplyDelete(1) The average cost of buying private health insurance is $218 per month. This is $38 more per month than the monthy expenditure on tobacco.
ReplyDelete(2) That's an average. You can buy plans for significantly less than that if you're willing to pay a higher deductible.
(3) The point is that many of the people universal insurance aims to help are already making stupid decisions. We want to come up with some kind of reform that incentivizes people to do intelligent things.
(4) Charlie Weis both raises our premiums and lowers our overall health.