President Barack Obama's recent proposal for a public health insurance option has given hope to many of those currently unable to afford insurance premiums. However, the president has also made it clear that he does not intend to increase deficit spending to fund his program, which is estimated to cost some $1 trillion over the next decade. The question then on everyone's mind is: From where will we obtain such a sum?

A recent editorial in The New England Journal of Medicine reported that health care expenditures in the United States for tobacco-related diseases come in at just under $100 billion annually. Over the course of a decade that amounts to, you got it, $1 trillion.

So, for those who persist in thinking that the decision to smoke affects only them individually, think again. Make the choice now to quit, and put on the path to recovery not only your own health, but the health of our nation.

Dustin Armstrong

Salt Lake City