“What’s the point? I’m not getting out of here anyway.” That’s what my patient, a working-class man in his 30s, told me when I asked him whether he would consider quitting smoking. He went on to explain that he did not believe that he had a real chance at a better life, and so didn’t see the point of trying to kick his 20-year smoking habit.
It’s been years since I last saw that patient, but I think about him often. His story highlights a key reason that America’s health has declined so dramatically in the past few decades. For […]
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