Faced with the high cost of caring for smokers and overeaters, experts say society must grapple with a blunt question: Instead of trying to penalize them and change their ways, why not just let these health sinners die?
Annual health care costs are roughly $96 billion for smokers and $147 billion for the obese, the government says. These costs accompany sometimes heroic attempts to prolong lives, including surgery, chemotherapy and other measures.
If you're going to let "health sinners" die because of the costs of their behaviour, it`s just a short step to "well they're going to die anyway, and they're costing money and we need that bed, so let's pull the plug."
