tobacco

A 2009 study by the Harvard Medical School and the Cambridge Health Alliance, “Health Insurance and Mortality in U.S. Adults,” looks at the relationship between having health insurance and death rates. The study used data from the CDC’s third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.  The survey was conducted between 1988 and 1994 and involved more than 33,000 people.

The fact that smoking has direct negative effects on health is well documented.  Smoking could also adversely impact the health of others in a family through substitution effects within a household’s expenditures.