A thorny question lies at the heart of meaningful health care reform. How much is human life worth? New research from Wharton and Stanford based on Medicare kidney-dialysis data shows that the average figure—$129,090 per additional year of quality life—is higher than prior studies have shown. Perhaps more important, the study also puts a value on the cost effectiveness of treatment across percentiles of the entire dialysis population in an attempt to develop a benchmark for health care coverage decisions.

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