Medicare costs and smoking-related illness

Your Monday editorial on entitlements was really ho-hum. Every adult interested in government knows the story by heart. Spending too much on health care and Social Security, the country is going broke, politicians won’t do anything, blah blah blah.

But wait. In your Health section of the same date is real news on the subject: The Associated Press reports that Medicare covers 20 percent of Americans and — get this — 36 percent smoke, compared with 13 percent who don’t have government-supplied health care. And here’s no surprise: About the same percentage of smokers self report fair or poor health compared to the nonsmokers.

So we taxpayers are subsidizing poor or old smokers to damage their health, which we are trying to maintain at our expense through government medical care.

Here’s a win-win solution: Give Medicare or Medicaid recipients 45 days after enrollment to become tobacco-free. They get better health, and taxpayers save money on their care. Everyone wins.