The best time to die (to help fellow taxpayers)

doi:10.1136/bmj.39094.388588.1F

BMJ 2007;334:110 (20 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.39094.388588.1F

Letters

Smokers and surgery

The best time to die (to help fellow taxpayers)

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Not too long ago an accountant told me that,from a financial perspective only, a patriotic citizen shoulddie the moment he or she changes from a net taxpayer (a nettax asset of the state) to a net tax consumer (a net tax liabilityof the state).¹ For many people this means one should drop deadon the way home from one's retirement party. A brother and sisteracquaintance illustrate this quite well. The sister, a non-drinker,non-smoker, responsible eater lived to be 85. Since age 65 shereceived 20 years' retirement as a government worker, 20 yearssocial security payments, had Medicare paid pharmaceutical chargesfor almost two decades of diabetes, hypertension, and raisedcholesterol, outpatient office visits, and hospitalisation costsfor a pneumonia, fractured hip, and sub-endocardial infarction.Her brother, a heavy smoker and drinker, literally dropped deadat 60. Up to that point he paid for . . . [Full text of this article]