Thursday, Nov. 17, 2005 | 7:17 a.m.
Regarding the Sun's Nov. 12 editorial, "Smoking a costly habit":
I agree that smoking is a costly habit. The huge increase in the price of cigarettes is to pay those enormous judgments against the tobacco companies to the states. Increases on cigarette taxes have also hit hard and made the addiction extremely difficult for the poor and those on fixed incomes.
What's worse is that very little of these funds, either from the states' settlement with the tobacco companies or the increased revenue from cigarette taxes, are actually used to pay the costs of helping a smoker kick the habit. Most smokers are having to manage that burden on their own.
Assisting the smokers to quit the habit would be killing the goose that laid the golden egg. The government is now addicted to all these funds and would be in some serious trouble if all the smokers just up and quit.
The surcharge being assessed on employee benefits, however, should be of great concern for everyone. Do you really believe that the surcharges will all end with cigarette-related expenses? Not in your life. It is just as easy to get someone on a scale to check their weight as it is to check someone to see if they are a smoker. It is, in fact, easier.
As the insurance companies start to run out of these surcharges, as smokers find the strength to quit, they will have to find another source of income to replace these funds. Better check your height-to-weight ratio before climbing on this bandwagon or you may find that the extra weight is going to cost you in the end, big time.
Ricky Kendall
North Las Vegas
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