Should Smokers Have to Pay 50 Percent More for Health Insurance?

Nurses at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City still chuckle about the elderly gentleman who was a patient at the hospital years ago. He would always respond the same way when asked if he smoked: “I gave it up when they raised the price to 35 cents a pack!” That was about 40 years ago. Cigarettes now hover at $10 a pack in New York City and only a bit less elsewhere.