Reading Comprehension Practice Passages NET, IAS, State-SET (KSET, WBSET, MPSET, etc.), GATE, CUET, Olympiads etc.: Health System

Get unlimited access to the best preparation resource for competitive exams : get questions, notes, tests, video lectures and more- for all subjects of your exam.

The standard of medicine in the United States is generally agreed to be very high. There is no shortage of well qualified specialists, and there is a lot of individual attention. Treatment is backed up by the latest in the way of medical technology. Doctors and hospitals do their utmost not to make mistakes, because if they do they risk being made to pay out enormous sums in compensation.

But the American health care system has what look like insoluble problems. There are in fact two systems side by side. One is the private system run on the basis of free competition. The other is the public system which had to be created because such a large part of the population, including many of the elderly, could not afford to pay for the absurdly expensive private treatment.

The public system is vast. A huge proportion-more than 10 per cent-of the United States federal budget goes on it. Yet there are still very large numbers of Americans who are not covered even by this service. The government tries to keep expenditure down and so sets limits to the income of people using the system. Millions of the unemployed are another important group that is excluded.

  1. What is the state of the health system in America? It is
    1. unsatisfactory.
    2. satisfactory.
    3. too risky.
    4. too mechanised.
  2. What can patients expect with regard to treatment in the U. S. A.
    1. Frequent mistakes by doctors.
    2. Very honest hospitals.
    3. Personal attention.
    4. Some of the most skilful nurses in the world.
  3. Among those Americans who cannot get proper health care are
    1. some people who earn too much.
    2. old people.
    3. people with very large incomes.
    4. private patients.