Obese individuals & smokers actually cost the system less money overall vs slim & healthy people because they die so much earlier - think of the 30+ years of sa

Obese individuals & smokers actually cost the system less money overall vs slim & healthy people because they die so much earlier - think of the 30+ years of savings! Dutch researchers compared three cohorts (healthy-living nonsmokers, smokers, and people with obesity) from age 20 to death. They found annual costs were higher for obesity through midlife, but lifetime spending was highest for healthy-living people, lowest for smokers, and intermediate for people with obesity, due to shorter life expectancy in the latter two groups. https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.0050029 https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371%2F... Another study found total lifetime costs were ~14% lower for the obesity cohort and ~26% lower for smokers versus healthy living peers, again because longer life spans among the healthy group accrue more late life costs. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/5596865_Lifetime_Medical_Costs_of_Obesity_Prevention_No_Cure_for_Increasing_Health_Expenditure https://www.researchgate.net/publication/5596865_Lifetime_Me...