Another report from the “Better Living Through Learning” desk, courtesy of David Leonhardt in yesterday’s NY Times: We’re spending far more money on health care than we have in the past, but we’re getting so much more in return, because we’ve learned — and we continue to learn — so much more about the workings of God’s creation. Excerpt:
In 1950, the country spent less than $100 a year — or $500 in today’s dollars — on the average person’s medical care, compared with almost $6,000 now […]. Most families in the 1950’s paid their medical bills with ease, but they also didn’t expect much in return. […]
But then doctors figured out that high blood pressure and high cholesterol caused heart attacks, and they developed new treatments. Oncologists learned how to attack leukemia, enabling most children who receive a diagnosis of it today to triumph over a disease that was almost inevitably fatal a half-century ago. In the last few years, orphan drugs that combat rare diseases and medical devices like the implantable defibrillator have extended lives. Human longevity still hasn’t hit the wall that was feared 50 years ago.
Instead, a baby born in the United States this year will live to age 78 on average, a decade longer than the average baby born in 1950. People who have already made it to their 40’s can now expect to reach age 80. […] If you think about this as the return on the investments in medicine, the payoff has been fabulous: Would you prefer spending an extra $5,500 on health care every year — or losing 10 years off your lifespan? […]
From David Leonhardt, The Choice: A Longer Life or More Stuff – New York Times, Sept. 27, 2006 (emphasis added).
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