Suppose a family values the positive effects that screening would have on their child at $30,000, but in their area, it would cost them $50,000. Them paying for it anyway would be like “donating” $20,000 towards the moral imperative that you propose. But would that really be the best counterfactual use of the money? E.g. donating it instead to the Against Malaria Foundation would save 4-5 lives in expectation.[1] Maybe it would be worth it at $10,000? $5,000?
Although, this doesn’t take into account the idea that an additional person doing polygenic screening would increase its acceptance in the public, incentivizing companies to innovate and drive the price down. So maybe the knock-on effects would make it worth it.
I mostly agree with this perspective with regards to the “moral imperative”.
But apart from that, it seems to me that a good case can be made if we use personal health spending as a reference class.
Even if we only consider currently achievable DALY gains, it is quite notable that we have a method to gain several healthy life-years for a price of maybe $20,000/healthy year (and actually these gains should even be heritable themselves!).
I do not know the numbers for common health interventions, but this should already be somewhat comparable.
update: Quick estimate: US per capita health spending in 2019 was $11,582 according to CDC. If the US health spending doubles life expectancy compared to having no health system, this is comparable to $20,000/healthy year.
Suppose a family values the positive effects that screening would have on their child at $30,000, but in their area, it would cost them $50,000. Them paying for it anyway would be like “donating” $20,000 towards the moral imperative that you propose. But would that really be the best counterfactual use of the money? E.g. donating it instead to the Against Malaria Foundation would save 4-5 lives in expectation.[1] Maybe it would be worth it at $10,000? $5,000?
Although, this doesn’t take into account the idea that an additional person doing polygenic screening would increase its acceptance in the public, incentivizing companies to innovate and drive the price down. So maybe the knock-on effects would make it worth it.
Okay, I’ve heard that this scale of donations to short-termist charities is actually a lot more complicated than that, but this is just an example.
I mostly agree with this perspective with regards to the “moral imperative”.
But apart from that, it seems to me that a good case can be made if we use personal health spending as a reference class.
Even if we only consider currently achievable DALY gains, it is quite notable that we have a method to gain several healthy life-years for a price of maybe $20,000/healthy year (and actually these gains should even be heritable themselves!).
I do not know the numbers for common health interventions, but this should already be somewhat comparable.
update: Quick estimate: US per capita health spending in 2019 was $11,582 according to CDC. If the US health spending doubles life expectancy compared to having no health system, this is comparable to $20,000/healthy year.