I’m currently under the impression that American health insurance prices American lives at ~$10mil, but I don’t have any sources on hand. Americans do, however, pour money into safety measures (such as emission controls) which save far less than 1 life per million dollars (in expectation); see p78 here. I’m actually not sure how much it would cost to save the next marginal developed-nation life.
I think for governments that care about cost-effectiveness (UK’s NICE is an example), healthcare systems tend to be willing to pay $30-100k (edit: per life-year!). Sometimes you pay over $100 for cancer or for other reasons that aren’t related to cost-effectiveness.
People are obviously willing to pay millions of dollars from time-to-time to save political prisoners, mountaneers, prevent construction accidents, workplace accidents, and so on.
I think you’re talking about figures per life-year. Figures per life are order of 50 times higher.
You can look at the ‘value of a statistical life’ used by various government agencies. For example the US Department of Transportation recommends a VSL figure of $9.1 million. The UK Department of Transport uses the much lower figure of £1.6 million despite much smaller wealth differences. Even within one country, different agencies aren’t super-consistent on this; see e.g. the Wikipedia page on value of life.
I’m currently under the impression that American health insurance prices American lives at ~$10mil, but I don’t have any sources on hand. Americans do, however, pour money into safety measures (such as emission controls) which save far less than 1 life per million dollars (in expectation); see p78 here. I’m actually not sure how much it would cost to save the next marginal developed-nation life.
I think for governments that care about cost-effectiveness (UK’s NICE is an example), healthcare systems tend to be willing to pay $30-100k (edit: per life-year!). Sometimes you pay over $100 for cancer or for other reasons that aren’t related to cost-effectiveness.
People are obviously willing to pay millions of dollars from time-to-time to save political prisoners, mountaneers, prevent construction accidents, workplace accidents, and so on.
I think you’re talking about figures per life-year. Figures per life are order of 50 times higher.
You can look at the ‘value of a statistical life’ used by various government agencies. For example the US Department of Transportation recommends a VSL figure of $9.1 million. The UK Department of Transport uses the much lower figure of £1.6 million despite much smaller wealth differences. Even within one country, different agencies aren’t super-consistent on this; see e.g. the Wikipedia page on value of life.
Yes, per life-year!