I'm sorry, I think that article was written in a very suspicious, perhaps misleading style. They focus on this guy who defends tobacco companies, claim his studies "prove" something, then shift to a Dutch study by a different author (the Netherlands have a completely different health care system than the US and costs cannot be directly compared). Then allude to a different study, by another author, studying a completely different issue more than 20 years ago.

I will look up the study in JAMA though since they did mention the author and the journal--just out of curiosity since this claim seems counter-intuitive.