Smoking and hospital utilization.

Remaining lifetime hospital days (RLHD) are used as estimates of possible differences in medical care costs between ever smokers and never smokers. Hospital usage by age in days per person per year comes from the 1970 U.S. National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) of some 40,000 households. Life table analysis for relative longevity of ever smokers and never smokers is based on mortality ratios presented in the American Cancer Society's Million Person Study. Results are similar to those obtained by Leu and Schaub for Swiss medical costs. There is no consistent increase in RLHD for ever smokers. In fact, male ever smokers older than 44 years and female ever smokers older than 38 years can expect fewer RLHDs than never smokers.