Illness caused by cigarette smoking incurs heavy costs to the U.S. healthcare system. According to a recent Reuters study, 8.7 percent of all healthcare spending — or $170 billion annually — is used for treating illness caused by tobacco smoke.
Researchers analyzed data on healthcare use and spending from the 2006-2010 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey and the 2004-2009 National Health Interview Survey for a national representation of smoking behavior and costs to draw their findings.
According to the study, 18 percent adults in the U.S. smoke cigarettes and nearly 20 percent of deaths are caused by smoking.
Government agencies pick up much of the costs for treating smoking-related illnesses, with 15.2 percent of Medicaid spending, 9.6 percent of Medicare spending and 32.8 percent of spending by other federal agencies, such as the Veterans Affairs department, Tricare and the Indian Health Services attributed to smoking.
The leader of the study, Xin Xu, PhD, senior economist and senior service fellow of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said, "Fifty years after the first Surgeon General's report, tobacco use remains the nation's leading preventable cause of death and disease, despite declines in adult cigarette smoking prevalence."