LETTERS: DON'T PROTECT LIFE-DESTROYING INDUSTRY

To the editor:

A recent editorial questioned both the legality and rationale for spending millions of dollars of taxpayers' money in the forthcoming tobacco litigation. This issue represents an opportunity to invest in the improved health of Missouri citizens with a corresponding savings in personal and public revenue. Your editorial points out that smoking-related costs to Medicaid alone are estimated to exceed 100 million per year in Missouri. However, the Centers for Disease Control estimated the total smoking-related costs in Missouri in 1995 to be over 3.3 billion. These medical expenses arise from the obvious (cancer, asthma, hypertension, heart disease) to the less well-known (spontaneous abortions, hyperactive children, impotency). Thus the tobacco industry promotes and creates unbelievably huge costs in terms of medical expenses, lost productivity and loss of loved ones. The 6 percent to 7 percent in attorneys' fees seems no more exorbitant than customary markups in the retail world, where it is not unusual to hear consumers complain of price-gouging from providers ranging from physicians fees (as recently described by Dr. Kamath) to monthly cable rates or the price of a daily newspaper. The legality of the contract arranged by the Missouri attorney general is another matter, which will apparently be resolved in the courts. Unfortunately, the litigation initiated by Peter Kinder will also likely generate whopping legal fees at the expense of taxpayers. It does not make sense that elected officials claiming to champion human life and fiscal integrity would continue to protect an industry that destroys lives and costs us billions in the process.

JIM MAGINEL

Cape Girardeau