At a seminar discussing ways to prevent chronic disease held in Shanghai on March 31, 2012, Chen Zhu, Minister of Health, revealed that the ministry was planning to include expenditures on counseling to stop smoking into the basic medical insurance system provided by the government, and would pay for drugs that help reduce dependence on tobacco.
　　Chen’s remark sparked immediate controversy. Supporters believe that smoking has brought health threats and burdens to the health care system and has become one of the most pressing public health tasks. Subsidizing smokers by including medication to quit smoking in the basic health insurance is not a waste of insurance funds, they say, but will save money in the long term to reduce strokes, heart disease, lung cancer and other tobaccorelated diseases.
　　However, critics argue that the move is unfair to nonsmokers. Government medical insurance should take care of the most urgent needs, while it is wrong to categorize smoking as a disease, they say.
　　China is the world’s largest tobacco producing and consuming country, with 300 million smokers and 740 million victims of secondhand smoke. About 1.2 million people died from tobacco-related diseases each year, according to the Health Ministry.
　　yu Wenjun rednet.cn
　　 I support covering the expenditures on counseling to stop smoking and drugs under?the medical?insurance as it will save money for the system.
　　Undoubtedly, smoking is hazardous to people’s health and it is even called the No.1 killer of human beings. According to news reports, over 1 million people die from smoking-related diseases each year in China, more than the combined number of deaths in the country related to hIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, traffic accidents and suicides. The figure shows that eliminating smoking is an urgent issue.
　　As smoking is a trigger to many illnesses, curing tobacco addiction is actually reducing the chances of getting cardiovascular and lung diseases. And the cost of curing these illnesses is much higher than that of medicating smokers. In this way, a large sum of money will be saved for the medical system.
　　 yang Huayun Jxnews.com.cn
　　 The World health Organization included tobacco reliance in its International Classification of Diseases as a chronic disease as early as the 1990s. And the organization asked doctors to offer medical help to smokers as the chance of quitting smoking was slim if reliant on smokers’ willpower.
　　Countries in europe and North America and some in Asia have treated tobacco addiction as an independent disease and covered its medication in health insurance programs.
　　When China’s medical insurance system was established, it attached more importance?to treatment rather than prevention of diseases. however, if themedical insurance system only aims at providing treatment, but loses its significance as institutional incentives for preventing diseases, there will never be enough funds for the system. Covering the expenditures on counseling to stop smoking and drugs under the system is, to some extent, a positive sign for changes in the concept of setting up medical insurance from treatment to maintaining health.
　　xHi neh yuoann egt.com
　　To protect people’s health, I think it is worth carrying out the proposal.
　　Smoking is harmful to the health. even if the smokers don’t get any disease when they are smoking, they are likely to be infected by many illnesses in the long run due to the bad habit. The best way to protect smokers’ health, even life, is to help them quit the habit, not treat them after they get diseases like lung cancer. In other words, covering the expenditures on counseling and drugs under health insurance is treating disease in advance.
　　Moreover, diseases triggered by smoking are mostly fatal ones. The cost of curing these diseases will be paid by the health insurance funds, the sum of which far exceeds that of medicating smokers.
　　 Liu yang rednet.cn
　　Considering the current situation of China’s health insurance system, I don’t think this is the best way to deal with smoking.
　　The government should encourage people to quit smoking. But forcing the costs of quitting smoking on the current incomplete basic medical insurance system will not only impose heavy burdens on the system, but also restrict its future functioning. establishing a special fund jointly sponsored by the medical system, the government and tobacco producers is the fundamental way to tackle the issue.
　　Tobacco producers have to be involved in the anti-smoking efforts. They should donate funds based on sales and profits. By doing so, pressure on the medical insurance system will be relieved and the goal of tobacco control will also be realized as the running costs of tobacco producers are increased, with profits shrinking at the same time.
　　The government can provide subsidies to encourage anti-smoking research and campaigns promoting the public’s awareness of quitting smoking.
　　Chen yue caixun.com
　　I don’t think it is the best time to carry out this proposal as the current medical insurance system is not equipped with sufficient funds and is unable to afford the high costs.
　　Currently the medical insurance system has not covered all of the basic necessary drugs, or only covers some drugs in part. That people have difficulty in getting proper medical treatment because the high price of drugs is still an urgent problem. Compared with smokers, seniors and children are groups that need more care from the system. Their access to basic medical insurance should be firstly guaranteed.
　　People can choose whether to smoke or not. But disease is indiscriminate. It is unfair to pay for the smokers’ bad habits with health insurance funds donated by non-smokers.
　　Wang Kun Freelancer
　　 There are only three international pharmaceutical giants that are able to currently produce anti-smoking drugs. The costs of the drugs for a course of treatment (six months) could reach 3,300 yuan ($523). Taking into account the number of smokers in China, it will be a huge burden on the medical insurance system. And whether the drugs will eliminate smokers’ reliance on tobacco is unpredictable. It seems that only the pharmaceutical giants will benefit if the proposal is implemented.
　　Whether one can successfully quit smoking depends largely on his or her determination. And it has been proved by researches. For example, people in their 60s are most likely to successfully quit smoking, because they don’t want grandsons or granddaughters to inhale secondhand smoke.