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from the from-the-land-where-everything-wants-to-kill-you dept.
Many countries have successfully used tax policies to regulate the price of cigarette products. In Australia, a pack of cigarattes can cost up to $18, making it the most expensive country to buy cigarettes.
A report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) in 2016, found that the smoking rate in the country was at an all time low. In the last 20 years, smoking had decreased by almost 50 percent.
The study showed that less than 13 percent of Australians are daily smokers and fewer people are starting to smoke.
The report cites Australia as having one of the lowest smoking rates in the world, contributed in part by their implementation of increased taxes on tobacco products, plain packaging, and more restrictive smoke free environment laws.
Have the pictures of diseased lungs Australia puts on packs of cigarettes helped?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 01 2017, @05:28PM (1 child)
This is interesting, but also deceptive. This is like saying more people in Arizona have tuberculosis than in Louisiana, so clearly they have a health crisis.
I'll believe that US funded healthcare is more expensive per person than the UK because only "the very bad" in the US get it. Only those who are elderly, disabled, or otherwise liable to poor health qualify for government-run healthcare. Naturally this means they will cost more. If you control for age and health status, I'm guessing the cost in the UK will be the same or higher than the US.
This is the exact reason why they have the individual mandate, and the concept of risk pooling. The young and healthy people lower the average cost per person.
(For those interested, it's because of reverse causation... those with tuberculosis move to Arizona because the weather is better for them.)
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Friday June 02 2017, @12:53AM
This isn't Lee head of people covered - it's per head of total population.
The US as a whole spends twice as much on health care as a compatible European country, or Canada. Half of that comes from insurance premiums, half for the federal/state governments.
I sure hope your health care outcomes are twice as good as the rest of the world.