单选题 Crippling health care bills, long emergency-room waits and the inability to find a primary care physician just scratch the surface of the problems that patients face daily. Primary care should be the backbone of any health care system. Countries with appropriate primary care resources score highly when it comes to health outcomes and cost. The US takes the opposite approach by emphasizing the specialist rather than the primary care physician.
A recent study analyzed the providers who treat Medicare beneficiaries.The startling finding was that the average Medicare patient saw a total of seven doctors—two primary care physicians and five specialists—in given one year. Contrary to a popular belief, the more physicians taking care of you doesn't guarantee better care. Actually, increasing fragmentation of care results in a corresponding rise in cost and medical errors.
How did we let primary care slip so far? The key is how doctors are paid. Most physicians are paid whenever they perform a medical service. The more a physician does, regardless of quality or outcome, the better he's reimbursed. Moreover, the amount a physician receive leans heavily toward medical or surgical procedures. A specialist who performs a procedure in a 30-minute visit can be paid three times more than a primary care physician using that same 30 minutes to discuss a patient's disease.Combine this fact with annual government threats to indiscriminately cut reimbursements, physicians are faced with no choice but to increase quantity to boost income. Primary care physicians who refuse to compromise quality are either driven out of business or to each-only practices, further contributing to the decline of primary care. Medical students aren't blind to this scenario. They see how heavily the reimbursement deck is stacked against primary care.
How do we fix this problem?
It starts with reforming the physician reimbursement system. Remove the pressure for primary care physicians to squeeze in more patients per hour, and reward them for optimally managing their diseases and practicing evidence based medicine. Make primary care more attractive to medical students by forgiving student loans for those who choose primary care as a career and reconciling the marked difference between specialist and primary care physician salaries.

单选题 The author's chief concern about the current US health care system is ______.

A. the inadequate training of physicians
B. The declining number of doctors
C. the shrinking primary care resources
D. the ever-rising health care costs

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】

单选题 We learn from the passage that people tend to believe that ______.

A.The more costly the medicine, the more effective the cure
B. seeing more doctors may result in more diagnostic errors
C. visiting doctors on a regular basis ensures good health
D. the more doctor taking care of a patient, the better

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】

单选题 Face with the government threats to cut reimbursements indiscriminately, primary care physicians have to ______.

A. increase their income by working overtime
B. improve their expertise and service
C. Make various deals with specialists
D. see more patients at the expense of quality

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】

单选题 Why do many medical graduates refuse to choose primary care as their career?

A.They find the need for primary care declining.
B.The current system works against primary care.
C. Primary care physicians command less respect.
D. They think working in emergency rooms tedious.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】

单选题 What suggestion does the author give in order to provide better health care?

A. Bridge the salary gap between specialist and primary care physicians.
B. Extend primary care to patients with chronic diseases.
C. Recruit more medical students by offering loans.
D. Reduce the tuition of students who choose primary care as their major.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】