9% of health spending attributed to smoking, study finds

Of every $10 spent on health care in the United States, almost 90 cents is because of smoking, a new analysis says (Source: “Study: Smoking burns up U.S. health-care resources,” Reuters via Columbus Dispatch, Dec. 20, 2014). 

A study published last month in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, using recent health- and medical-spending surveys, calculated that 8.7 percent of all health-care spending, or $170 billion a year, is for illness caused by tobacco smoke, and public programs such as Medicare and Medicaid paid for most of these costs.

“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,” said Xin Xu from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who led the study.