THE PHILIPPINES could save $687 million a year if it can convince 10% of its smoking population to shift to non-combusted alternatives, according to a De La Salle University study.
Associate professor Christopher James R. Cabuay said the findings were based on an estimate of $9.8 billion as the cost of smoking-related illnesses in 2019, including the cost of treatment and medicine shouldered by households.
“We are also talking about public resources that are dedicated to capacitating hospitals to treat these things, which is part of what we call the direct cost,” he said at the Consumer Choice Center briefing on Wednesday.
He added that indirect costs include lost productivity due to disability and death.
He said that the cost of smoking-related illness translates to about 2.48% of gross domestic product (GDP).
“Only a small part of that is… direct cost of treatment; the largest part of that is driven by smoking-attributable death,” he said.
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