Are we becoming worse as a Nanny State?

Ireland ranks 8th in this nanny state index. http://nannystateindex.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/NannyStateIndex-final.pdf

Interestingly rank in this index does not correlate with life expectancy, the only thing that does is wealth and ‘sin taxes’ disproportionately make the poorest poorer.

It hardly matters though. It was decided that smokers would be further penalised for smoking, and that's pretty much it. Oh, I've heard all the reasons, but they tend to shrivel when examined closely.

I've been smoking for roughly 20ish years, and I've always been on private health insurance (either mine or my parents), and during that whole period, I have not once needed medical care, in any way related to my smoking habit. That's over 20 years of insurance contributions (which were taxed), higher life insurance and life assurance rates because I was a smoker (which are also taxed), etc... in addition to the constant price hikes to the cost of tobacco in this country (even before 1998 prices were increasing) to the point where tobacco is roughly four times the cost in other European nations. I've spoken with a variety of friends (both working and middle class smokers) and they're all on private health insurance, and have got nothing from the State, with regards to any issues to do with smoking. Anything that's come up, has been paid out of their own pockets, because of the waiting lists, and poor service commitments of the public health service.

So, TBH, I often wonder about these claims that smokers cost the State so much... but it doesn't actually matter because we do live in a nanny state, where the government can tax a segment of that society more than others, in addition to encouraging/allowing businesses to charge higher rates/prices to smokers, which further increase tax returns. There's little real desire to end the availability and use of tobacco in Ireland, because it's worth so much to the government, and they're not going to ban it outright... instead, they will continue to leech money from smokers as long as they can. The overall smoking prevalence declined from 25% in 2003 to 17% in 2019.. so... there's still a sizable number of people still smoking, and likely to continue smoking remaining to be taxed, and charged for something that remains legal.

And no, I have no issue with the smoking ban, encouraging people to stop smoking, whatever... that's all good in my eyes. I've never been one to smoke around/near non-smokers, and understand their concerns.

Each generation has a health concern. For my parents, it was heart disease. For mine, it was cancer. There's always something to fear when it comes to health... and the supposed costs to the State. Over the last two years, catching up with family members, and others, I've encountered so many people who have cancer, and most of them never smoked a day in their lives. We make such a big deal about the increased risks to smokers, but ignore that cancer is a risk to everyone, and appears to be manifesting more often regardless of whether you were a smoker or not.

The issue returns to whether Ireland is a nanny state, and I would say that it is... It's just that Irish society is too fragmented to really concern themselves with how others are affected by the regulation of society. We're only really concerned with how we, ourselves, are controlled/restrained, rather than looking at the overall picture.