New study from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology smoking cause … – SWR News

Smoking harms known health and that is financially more favorable to the company: researchers from the KIT have this noted in a study

The study by Professor Berthold Wigger and his collaborator Florian Steidl from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) revealed that smoking relieve social funds and taxpayers in Germany, the bottom line to high billions.

The main reason is that smokers die about five years earlier than Non smoking and reflect accordingly no age pensions and annuities more. This affects financially stronger than additional costs of additional medical treatment or early withdrawal from the labor market.

“We have restarted the net costs of smoking in Germany examined “Wigger told Deutsche Presse-Agentur. It was all about the costs that will be borne by the general public.

The two researchers selected for their study a novel approach. You could take on a life cycle of 89 years up to today in modeling a theoretical non-smokers and the real society of 2011. From this, they calculated what comes at extra costs and savings for the society here. Accordingly, the real company is 36.4 billion euros more affordable for all.

In addition, smoking rates in their lifetime even 376 billion euros tobacco taxes. “Tobacco taxes can be justified only with difficulty, if one considers the external net cost” Wigger said. This will not detract from the high popularity of tobacco taxes at the tax authorities but.

Other researchers have come to a different conclusion and put the annual cost of smoking in Germany between 30 and 35 billion euros, some even up to 90 billion euros. Which only stood against revenue of € 14 billion from the tobacco tax.

The central association of statutory health insurance (GKV) criticized the focus on the economic benefits of smoking for the common good. “The often relatively early death of people because of their addiction to nicotine is a drama, and I find it strange, to calculate therefrom an economic benefit for society”, Florian Lenz, Appeal to the GKV said. There go the health insurance to the health of smokers and not about the advantages or disadvantages for the social security funds.