Most expensive health care has been delivered in intensive care settings in hospitals. But expensive genetic tests, drugs and engineering won't be. Insurance today rarely pays for anything done outside the hospital. Huge genetic data bases already exist in the United States. The Department of Defense maintains a registry with millions of samples.
Private companies have computers filled with genetic information.
And many more want to use big data banks to track down disease-causing genes and find new drugs and treatments. Soon, we'll be able to know who among us is more likely to have children with severe mental illnesses and which embryos, babies and kids are likely to have special gifts and aptitudes. These truly are the issues that those now too young to vote will face in their voting lives. Arthur Caplan is a professor and director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania.