Being Fat And Smoking CHEAPER In The Long Run Than Being Healthy

Here's one that will probably make you fall over ...

A Dutch study reached the conclusion that, over the long run, fat people and smokers actually cost LESS to treat because, although they have much more serious health conditions and earlier than healthy people, healthy people live so much longer they accumulate much higher overall medical costs.

The overall results in terms of average lifespan and medical costs after age 20:

Healthy people: 84 years, $417,000

Obese people: 80 years, $371,000 (interesting as both of my maternal grandparents were big as battlestars and died at 80)

Smokers: 77 years, $326,000

So there you go, people ... if you want to solve the Medicare crisis, better start hitting Mickey D's and lighting up ...