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Spheres of Influence
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The Regulation Equation: Factoring In the Price of Health Bob Weinhold Abstract
The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs is charged with determining the benefits and costs of proposed regulations, including environmental legislation. Among the tools used to make such determinations is the cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) , a method that can include calculations of the dollar value of human life. Given the controversy around this and other cost-benefit assessments, a committee of the National Academies’ Institute of Medicine was called upon to provide guidance as to how, or even whether, to assign a specific value to effects such as degraded human health. In their January 2006 final report, the committee concluded that techniques such as CEA have their place, but also have important deficiencies that could to some extent be addressed by following the committee’s twelve main recommendations.
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