How much is a life worth?

The NY Times just published a good article about the costs of health care. This article brings up a lot of thought questions about how much we are willing to pay for health care. They also discuss some ways to try and quantify these issues.

As a cancer researcher I have been noticing the rising costs of cancer treatments. Very soon we, as a society, will have to decide how much we are willing to spend for end of life care. The latest cancer drugs are getting approved by extending life by as little as a few weeks, but they have price tags in excess of $40,000 per course of treatment. Because we have been willing to pay these prices new drugs will be priced even higher. Cancer is also not the only area where this is happening. Very soon we will have to decide how much we are willing to pay for the last month of life. $100,000? $500,000? $1 million?

I'm not an economist but I don't think that health care functions as a standard free market, therefore it will be difficult to control these prices. As a society we will have to make a decision about how much we can afford to spend on end of life care, then find a way to control the prices without causing financial problems for health care companies. The next 5-10 years should be very interesting for the health care industry.