A Utilitiarian View
A pro-government - meaning unrealistic on the true costs of socialism and regulation - but utilitiarian view of the cost of health and value of longevity can be found at the NCPA website: "The reduction in mortality from 1970 to 2000 had an economic value of about $3.2 trillion per year. Over the longer term, the cumulative longevity gains during the twentieth century were worth about $1.3 million per person. ... advances against one disease, like heart disease, raise the value of progress against other age-related ailments, such as cancer ... reductions in mortality since 1970 have raised the value of further health progress by about 18 percent. The authors also suggest that current funding of medical research is too low. A single percent reduction in mortality from cancer or heart disease would be worth nearly $500 billion to current and future Americans."
Link: http://www.ncpa.org/newdpd/dpdarticle.php?article_id=2676