"We're actually getting a pretty good deal," said David Cutler, professor of economics at Harvard University and lead author of a study appearing Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

"We're spending a lot but we're getting a lot too," Cutler told United Press International. "We're not wasting our money"

Since 1960, life expectancy at birth has increased by about seven years, the researchers calculated using demographic data. Over the same period, the amount an average newborn can expect to spend on healthcare in a lifetime has increased by about $69,000. Assuming about half of increased life expectancy is due to medical care, that means the cost of an additional year of life was about $19,900.

That may sound like a lot, but compared to the value of a year of life as defined by insurance companies and medical decision-makers -- whose estimates range from $50,000 to $200,000 - it is a worthwhile expense, Cutler said.

"That $20,000 a year is far below what most people are willing to pay," he said.

The value that Americans are getting from healthcare means that it would not be a poor investment of resources to spend even more on healthcare, Cutler said, even as much as 25 or 30 percent of gross domestic product - about two-times the current level. "There will be a point where it becomes too much, but we're not there yet."

However, the study's findings do not mean that all healthcare spending is created equal, he added. "It's not all worth it, and we need to make sure the stuff we do spend money on is worth it."

Reductions in cardiovascular disease account for about 70 percent of the increased life expectancy, followed by decreased infant mortality, which accounts for 19 percent, the report found.

On the other hand, spending on cancer has increased enormously without corresponding improvements in health, Cutler said.

Increasing the lifespan of individuals over age 65 is also much more expensive, according to the study. Seniors have increased their longevity by just three and a half years since 1960, with a cost of $84,700 for each year of added life.

However, others raise concerns about the nation's ability to afford the constantly increasing cost of care.

The article's cost per additional year of life comparison does not take into account how well healthcare dollars are spent or whether they could have been better spent elsewhere, Alan Sager, co-director of the health reform program at Boston University's School of Public Health, told UPI.

The authors' assumption that half of the increases in life span are due to increased medical care is suspect, Sager said, especially in light of the fact that other industrialized countries spend far less on healthcare and yet have universally better health outcomes.

"It ignores the question of whether we could add years of life at much lower cost as other countries have done," he said.

It is also a "silly measure" because it ignores the fact that the money could have been better spent elsewhere, on things like primary care and better monitoring of chronic illness, Sager said.

Thinking of healthcare spending only in terms of lifespan also means that there is theoretically no upper limit to how much we should spend, and that ignores fundamental problems facing the healthcare system like lack of affordability and inequality, he said. Rapidly rising costs mean "more money to buy less care for fewer people."

The averages used in the study also do not take into account inequalities in healthcare distribution because of race, income or education, instead assuming that everyone got the same level of care, he said.

In a broader sense, Sager added, giving a green light to healthcare spending also means that increasing resources will be taken away from other needs like creating jobs, criminal justice and education.

"This is the sound of one hand patting healthcare on the back," he said. "We can do much better with the trillions of dollars we spend."

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