{"id":1259,"date":"2016-01-25T09:16:21","date_gmt":"2016-01-25T14:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.greatflorida.com\/blog\/?p=1259"},"modified":"2026-04-16T21:16:37","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T01:16:37","slug":"the-real-cost-of-smoking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/2016\/the-real-cost-of-smoking\/","title":{"rendered":"The Real Cost of Smoking"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><del><\/del>\u201cEveryone is familiar with the harmful health effects that result\u00a0from smoking, but many smokers probably do not take the time to calculate the expense attached to the habit,\u201d says <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/dustyns\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" =_blank>Dustyn Shroff<\/a>, Vice President of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/florida-healthcare-insurance\">GreatFlorida Insurance<\/a>, Florida\u2019s leading independent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/florida-healthcare-insurance\">health insurance<\/a> provider.<\/p>\n<p>For years Floridians have been educated on\u00a0the dangers of smoking.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lung.org\/stop-smoking\/smoking-facts\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The American Lung Association<\/a> reports, \u201cMore than 480,000 people in the U.S. die every year from tobacco use and exposure to second hand smoke. It is the leading cause of preventable death in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cigarettes are loaded with cancer causing chemicals and are the primary source of lung cancer and COPD chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, including emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Smoking also causes coronary heart disease and stroke with a list of other health issues.<\/p>\n<p>You cannot ignore the addiction of smoking without being sympathetic to the difficultly in breaking the habit. \u00a0Nicotine is a physical, social and psychological addiction.<\/p>\n<p>According to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.drugabuse.gov\/publications\/research-reports\/tobacco\/nicotine-addictive\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">National Institute on Drug Abuse<\/a>, close to 35 million smokers want to quit each year. Unfortunately, more than 85 percent of those who try to quit on their own relapse within a week.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMost smokers confess that smoking is bad for your health, but that doesn\u2019t make it easier to quit,\u201d says Buck with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/\">GreatFlorida Insurance<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>If the above evidence isn\u2019t enough to persuade you to quit, personal finance website, <a href=\"https:\/\/wallethub.com\/edu\/the-financial-cost-of-smoking-by-state\/9520\/#methodology\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">WalletHub.com<\/a> recently published a study calculating the costs of smoking per state. \u201cThe study calculated the potential monetary losses including the cost of a pack of cigarettes per day over several decades, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/florida-healthcare-insurance\">healthcare<\/a> expenditures, income loss and other costs brought on by smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Over a lifetime, the average smoker in Florida will spend, $1, 453,333. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/florida-healthcare-insurance\">Healthcare<\/a> costs are estimated at $163, 277. Over a year, the average Florida smoker will spend $28, 497 with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/florida-healthcare-insurance\">healthcare<\/a> costs totaling $3, 202.<\/p>\n<p>Whether the figures are exact for each smoker or a mere generalization, the fact is smoking is a drain on your wallet, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/florida-healthcare-insurance\">healthcare<\/a> costs and more importantly your life.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/\">GreatFlorida Insurance<\/a> provides <a href=\"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/florida-healthcare-insurance\">health insurance<\/a> that covers the cost of programs designed to help smokers to quit. Check with our independent insurance agents across Florida today to see how they can help.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1264 size-full lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Screen-shot-2012-04-15-at-11.20.23-PM.jpg\" alt=\"Cost-of-smoking\" width=\"699\" height=\"517\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Screen-shot-2012-04-15-at-11.20.23-PM.jpg 699w, https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Screen-shot-2012-04-15-at-11.20.23-PM-300x222.png 300w, https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Screen-shot-2012-04-15-at-11.20.23-PM-600x444-1.jpg 600w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 699px) 100vw, 699px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 699px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 699\/517;\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Screen-shot-2012-04-15-at-11.20.23-PM.jpg 699w, https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Screen-shot-2012-04-15-at-11.20.23-PM-300x222.png 300w, https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Screen-shot-2012-04-15-at-11.20.23-PM-600x444-1.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 699px) 100vw, 699px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cEveryone is familiar with the harmful health effects that result\u00a0from smoking, but many smokers probably do not take the time to calculate the expense attached to the habit,\u201d says Dustyn Shroff, Vice President of GreatFlorida Insurance, Florida\u2019s leading independent health insurance provider. For years Floridians have been educated on\u00a0the dangers of smoking.\u00a0 The American Lung [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1219,"featured_media":1265,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,13],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1259","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-floridainsurance","8":"category-healthcare-insurance"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1219"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1259"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13918,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259\/revisions\/13918"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatflorida.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}