32 How does the potential conflict between self-interest and the social interest complicate setting a financial threshold for healthcare treatments? Researchers at Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania estimated that a healthy human life is worth about $129,000.

Using government records on treatment costs for kidney dialysis as a benchmark, the authors tried to pinpoint the threshold beyond which ensuring another ‘quality’ year of life was no longer financially worthwhile. The study comes amid debate over whether the government should start rationing healthcare on the basis of cost effectiveness.