Re: Should smoking be banned outside?
The entire smoking industry will radically change just as soon as Private Health Insurance becomes compulsory, which is imho clearly where everything is headed.
Whilst people should be free to indulge in whatever habits they like (so long as it doesn't impact others adversely), there should equally be full accountability for areas of society where their habits have a wider impact.
If I enjoyed racing my car around a field with other like minded people and claimed on my insurance whenever it got pranged, then it's entirely reasonable for the rest of society to say, "no that's not acceptable because it results in everyone else having higher insurance premiums".
Accordingly, insurance companies heavily penalise those who refuse to
behave sensibly with their cars until the driver simply can no longer afford to insure their vehicle.
With smokers there needs to be accountability for the individual's decision to forego their health to feed their addiction. It's absolutely not acceptable for the rest of society to pay more and more towards health services whilst such reckless people do not behave sensibly and end up having to be treated for all manner of related illnesses and conditions.
When mandatory private health insurance comes in things will be very different. Those who stupidly smoke or vape will find their premiums astronomical and that will price many of them out of the market. They will then find themselves in a bit of a spot. A catch-22 situation. They would have to have some insurance, but the cost would be so high as to be unaffordable for many. What would happen? Would the government have to instruct hospitals not to treat such people? Would they be forced to sell their homes to pay for health care, just like old people have to for elderly care? Or would insurance companies simply massively restrict what specific treatments they would pay out on leaving smokers and vapers having to foot huge bills to be treated for lung cancer and clogged arteries and the like?
Smoking, for me, has always been an utterly ludicrous thing to do, a very serious form of self-harm, hence I've never done it. I do despair that society does allow the tobacco industry to exist, just as I despair that it allows the drug industries to exist.