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Does smoking increase medical care expenditure?

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  • Leu, Robert E.
  • Schaub, Thomas

Abstract

The impact of smoking on medical care expenditure is analyzed, challenging the widespread belief that smoking imposes a large cost burden on health services systems. The results imply that lifetime expenditure is higher for nonsmokers than for smokers because smokers' higher annual utilization rates are overcompensated for by nonsmokers' higher life expectancy. Population simulation, taking into account the effects of past smoking on present population size and composition, suggests that 1976 expenditure would have been the same if no male born since 1876 had ever smoked. The male population would have been larger, particularly at older ages, increasing medical care expenditure, but this increase would have been offset by lower annual medical care utilization rates. Thus the results imply that smoking does not increase medical care expenditure and, therefore, reducing smoking is unlikely to decrease it.

Suggested Citation

  • Leu, Robert E. & Schaub, Thomas, 1983. "Does smoking increase medical care expenditure?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 17(23), pages 1907-1914, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:17:y:1983:i:23:p:1907-1914
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    Cited by:

    1. Kenkel, Donald S. & Manning, Willard, 1999. "Economic evaluation of nutrition policy: Or, there's no such thing as a free lunch," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(2-3), pages 145-162, May.
    2. Herbert J A Rolden & David van Bodegom & Rudi G J Westendorp, 2014. "Changes in Health Care Expenditure after the Loss of a Spouse: Data on 6,487 Older Widows and Widowers in the Netherlands," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(12), pages 1-17, December.
    3. Armineh Zohrabian & Tomas J Philipson, 2010. "External Costs of Risky Health Behaviors Associated with Leading Actual Causes of Death in the U.S.: A Review of the Evidence and Implications for Future Research," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 7(6), pages 1-13, June.
    4. Hayashida, Kenshi & Imanaka, Yuichi & Murakami, Genki & Takahashi, Yuko & Nagai, Masato & Kuriyama, Shinichi & Tsuji, Ichiro, 2010. "Difference in lifetime medical expenditures between male smokers and non-smokers," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(1), pages 84-89, January.
    5. Betty Tao & Massimo Pietropaolo & Mark Atkinson & Desmond Schatz & David Taylor, 2010. "Estimating the Cost of Type 1 Diabetes in the U.S.: A Propensity Score Matching Method," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(7), pages 1-11, July.
    6. Auerbach, Alan J. & Chun, Young Jun, 2006. "Generational accounting in Korea," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 234-268, June.
    7. Laurie J. Bates & Resul Cesur & Rexford E. Santerre, 2015. "Short‐run marginal medical costs from booze and butts: Evidence from the states," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 81(4), pages 1074-1095, April.

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