In addition, the book you site seems to have missed something big. If I recall correctly, studies have shown that smokers generally place less of a burden on Medicaid/Medicare than non-smokers. This is because non-smokers live longer, giving them more time to accumulate medical bills, and because smoking related illnesses are gnerally cheaper to deal with than other illnesses.
-Jeff >>> Cyril Morong <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 04/20/05 11:11 AM >>> Has anyone ever compiled a list of this? For example, it says in the book "The Economics of Public Issues" that governments like to raise the taxes on cigarettes to reduced the money that Medicare and Medicaid have to spend on tobacco-induced medical bills. So the Medicare and Medicaid progams lead to increased cigarette taxes. Which I suppose have some cost for collection, etc. But higher cigarette taxes leads to smuggling which can lead to increased law enforcement costs. Now there are cigarette counterfeits. This reduces taxes as well. So Philip Morris is trying to get each state to pass bills that allow law enforcement to better track sales. They want each state to require anyone involved in cigarette sales, from the manufacturer to the corner store, to be licensed and to document where they received their product. Wholesalers would have to make sure cigarette packs have tax stamps that prove they paid the state tax. Another aspect to this is that terrorists are involved. This could lead to more costs for Homeland Security. Now I can't be sure that this all results from Medicare and Medicaid. But it seems possible that one government policy causes a problem which leads to the need for another government policy and so on. Of course, cigarette taxes may be a good way of generating revenue. But to pay for some other policy. So has anyone ever compiled a list of this sort of thing involving other government policies? Cyril Morong
