The lifetime cost of smoking in Illinois has surpassed $1.5 million per person, according to a new WalletHub study.
If an 18-year-old smoker took the costs related to smoking and instead invested in the S&P 500 for 51 years, the investment would grow to $1,549,069, according to the personal finance resource company.
WalletHub considered the cost of a cigarette pack every day, elevated health care costs, loss of income and other costs such as increased premiums on homeowner's insurance over a 51-year period. The calculations were for an adult who smoked a pack a day beginning at 18 until age 69, the average age at which a smoker dies. The study looked at costs in each of the 50 states, and the results varied from a loss of $1.1 million in South Carolina to about $2 million in Alaska.
Under the Affordable Care Act, health insurers are allowed to charge smokers 50 percent more for premiums than nonsmokers. Smokers also on average make 8 percent less than nonsmokers and pay 11 percent more for homeowner's insurance, according to WalletHub.
Smoking-related issues directly contribute $116.4 billion to health care costs each year in the United States, the group said.
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