Reason #7

Over the next seven days, we'll look at seven reasons to support HB2 and S205 (which is the Senate companion bill).

Reason Number Seven to Support HB 2
When people live and work in smoke-free enviornments, healthcare costs decline.

A recent study in Pueblo, Colorado found the rate of heart attacks declined 41% after a smoke-free law went into effect. Not only did fewer people have heart attacks, but it also had a rippling effect on the decline of public and private health care costs. When people live in smoke-free enviornments, less people have illnesses as a result of secondhand smoke, and more people quit smoking all together. As a result, individuals and the state spend less on healthcare.
Tobacco use costs North Carolina taxpayers $2.46 billion in direct healthcare costs ($769 million in Medicaid expenses alone), and $3.3 billion in lost productivity annually.