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Editorial: Put out that cigarette

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.

The national debate over health care has at times been over the top, with politicians and pundits debating in the fantasy realm over nonexistent "threats" like "death panels." But on the positive side, some of the debate has focused on individuals' responsibility for their own health.

That has led to a good question: If people stopped smoking, lost weight, ate a healthier diet and engaged in regular moderate exercise, how much money would we save on the treatment of self-induced sickness?

The answer, of course, is that we are unlikely to know, because that's unlikely to happen.

But businesses and governments that offer health insurance can, through that insurance, offer incentives to people to act in healthy ways — and penalize those who do not. Or, in the case of smoking, prohibit it for those seeking employment.

Like anything, you can extend the trend to absurdity. Does this mean your employer can tell you what or how much to eat, or how often to exercise? It's easy to imagine this trend becoming more intrusive than we want to endure as a society.

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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