Jump to full article: Pensacola (FL) News Journal, 2009-10-21
Intro: Santa Rosa County Sheriff Wendell Hall is the latest public official to realize that taxpayers can't be expected to foot the bill for people who ruin their health by smoking.
Smokers, get used to it.
With health care costs soaring, governments are looking for ways to cut the cost of taxpayer-funded health care benefits. They look first for the low-hanging fruit, and smoking is it.
. . .
But the destructive impact of smoking is all too clear. The message going out from employers who provide health insurance to their employees is that it no longer makes sense to ask everyone to help fund the costs of treating people who are poisoning themselves, no matter that they are doing so legally.
In this case Hall is being a good steward of tax dollars -- and doing a big favor to those who decide that having a job is worth quitting smoking.
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