It is impossible to put a dollar amount on human health versus being ill. What we do know is that our experience of life, reality and the world changes completely as our energy levels change and as our health fades.
Churchill famously said that if you’re not progressive in your 20s – you had no heart and if you’re not conservative in your 40s – you have no brain. What he observed is a fundamental change in our perception of reality as we age and lose our energy and vitality.
This trend of moving from “let’s change the world” youth ideals to conservative (less loving and tolerant views) is common to all humans, across cultures, races and across time. It is part of that we refer to as Human Condition.
So the price we pay for diminished health is a profound shift in our experience, in how we see the realty and what decisions we make in life, in every aspect of living. And this is why it is so important to remain healthy as long as we can, well into our old age. Not because of what others may say or think but because we want to remain open to love, living fully and experiencing everything we can instead of becoming rigid, small minded and protective of the status quo.
For those of us that prefer a dollar amount for the price of health, Steve Jobs’ experience offers a clue. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at age 48, his life was at it’s midpoint and he was already a dollar billionaire. When he died 8 years later, he left 14 billion dollars behind. It is reasonable to assume that he’d have spent every single cent of it to save his life and you could argue that “US$14b couldn’t save his life”. THAT can be seen as the possible price of health.