II. Say whether the following sentences are “Right” or “Wrong”. If there is not enough information to answer, choose “Doesn’t say”.

1. The National Health Service provides free medicines for everyone.

A. Right B. Wrong C. Doesn’t say

2. Health insurance could solve the problem of planning future medical expenses.

A. Right B. Wrong C. Doesn’t say

3. The market would fail to produce sufficient health care by equating public benefits and costs.

A. Right B. Wrong C. Doesn’t say

4. With a free health service, more people would consult their doctor at the early stages of a disease.

A. Right B. Wrong C. Doesn’t say

5. The US government subsidises the provision of health care.

A. Right B. Wrong C. Doesn’t say

III. For each question 1-5, mark one for the answer you choose.

1. The concept of equity applied to health care implies

A. treatment according to the ability to pay.

B. treatment according to social status.

C. treatment according to medical need.

2. The problem with medical insurance is that

A. the poor might not be able to obtain cover.

B. the premiums might be too high for the poor.

C. it might make it difficult for people to plan their budget.

3. If there were a market system of allocating health care,

A. doctors and drugs companies would probably take advantage of patient ignorance.

B. patients would be better informed.

C. patients would be more willing to buy expensive branded products.

4. In the free market

A. doctors’ fees would be reduced by competition.

B. doctors might charge standard prices for treatment.

C. price would be an indicator of the doctor’s skill.

5. According to the writer, a free health service

A. is sure to provide an optimal allocation of health-care resources.

B. should be restricted to the very poor.

C. is not necessarily the best alternative.

Can the market provide adequate protection for the environment?

___ (1)

In recent years people have become acutely aware of the damage being done to the environment pollution. But if the tipping of chemicals and sewage into the rivers and seas and the spewing of toxic gases into the atmosphere cause so much damage, why does it continue? If we all suffer from these activities, both consumers and producers alike, then why will a pure market system not deal with the problem? After all, a market should respond to people’s interests.

___ (2)

The reason is that the costs of pollution are largely external costs. They are borne by society at large and only very slightly (if at all) by the polluter. If, for example, 10 000 people suffer from the smoke from a factory (including the factory owner) then that owner will only bear approximately 1/10 000 of the suffering. That personal cost may be quite insignificant when the owner is deciding whether the factory is profitable. And if the owner lives far away, the personal cost of the pollution will be zero.

Thus the social costs of polluting activities exceed the private costs. If people behave selfishly and only take into account the effect their actions have on themselves, there will be an overproduction of polluting activities.

Thus it is argued that governments must intervene to prevent or regulate pollution, or alternatively to tax the polluting activities or subsidise measures to reduce the pollution.

___ (3)

But if people are purely selfish, why do they buy “green” products? Why do they buy, for, example, “ozone-friendly” aerosols? After all, the amount of damage done to the ozone layer from their own personal use of “non-friendly” aerosols would be absolutely minute. The answer is that many people have a social conscience. They do sometimes take into account the effect their actions have on other people. They are not totally selfish. They like to do their own little bit, however small, towards protecting the environment.

Nevertheless to rely on people’s consciences may be a very unsatisfactory method of controlling pollution. In a market environment where people are all the time being encouraged to consume more and more goods and where materialism is the religion of the age, there would have to be a massive shift towards “green thinking” if the market were to be a sufficient answer to the problem of pollution.

___ (4)

Certain types of environment problem may get high priority in the media, like acid rain, the greenhouse effect, damage to the ozone layer and brain damage to children from leaded petrol. However, the sheer range of polluting activities makes reliance on people’s awareness of the problems and their social consciences far too arbitrary.

I. Which text reports on these items?

A. Media priority of the environmental problems.
B. Costs of pollution.
C. A market response to the environmental problem.
D. People’s selfishness and social responsibility.