The idea that you're going to soak the smokers to pay for healthcare is just stoopid.

Instead, they should do what we USED to do here in Ontario, and set up a crown non-profit corporation to run the insurance program (as opposed to now, when we take it out of general tax revenue). We used to have an item on the payroll stub detailing how much insurance we'd paid to OHIP, and this was good because we could see what our money was paying for. This was back in the days when waiting times were not a problem etc etc because the basic deal was that anyone could open a hospital/clinic and get it accredited and then try to make profit off of the rates paid by OHIP. The rates were set in consultation with the OMA as well as various other stakeholders, keeping in mind that the goal was to get the best deal possible for the ratepayers. Better still, since people could see the chunk of paychecque paying for health insurance it gave them a good idea of who to bitch to if rates were too high. At the same time, if rates were too low and services were falling by the wayside, we knew who to bitch to then too. Now all we can do is bitch at the politicians because we can't see the numbers so easily.

It also saved the hospitals a lot of money because their billing departments were very small, saving money on administrative labour as well as making more space available for beds in the buildings. Nowadays the pay schedule is far from simple (if what I hear about it is true) making it very difficult for doctors and hospitals to keep track of their billing because of all the caveats and conditions attached to various rates for procedures etc. This requires hiring more labour and adds cost to the overall system. They really should go back to the way it was, which was simply to set up a non-profit monopoly, let loose the auditors on it from time to tome, and let the people working there get down to the business of getting the health-care providers their money so they can afford to give us the care.