If national health insurance would not cure the problems of the American healthcare system, what, then, is responsible for them? Suspicion falls heavily on hospitals, which make up the largest component of the system. In 1988 hospitals accounted for 39% of all health expenditures-more than doctor, nursing homes, drugs, and home health care combined.
Although U.S. hospitals provide outstanding research and frequently excellent care, they also exhibit the classic attributes of insufficient organizations: increasing costs and decreasing use. The average cost of a hospital stay in 1987—$3,850—was more than double the 1980 cost. A careful government analysis published in 1987 revealed the inflation of hospital costs, over and above general price inflation, as a major factor in their growth, even after allowances were made for increases in the population and in intensity of care. While the rate of increase for hospital costs was 2796 greater than that for all medical care and 163% greater than that for all other goods and services, demand for hospital services fell by 34%. But hospitals seemed oblivious of the decline: during this period the number of hospital beds shrank only by about 396, and the number of full-time employees grew by more than 240,000.
After yet another unexpectedly high hospital-cost increase last year, one puzzled government analyst asked: "Where's the money going?" Much of the increase in hospital costs—amounting to $180 billion from 1965 to 1987—went to duplicating medical technology available in nearby hospitals and maintaining excess beds. Modern Healthcare, a leading journal in the field, recently noted that "anecdotes of hospitals' unnecessary spending on technology abound". Medical technology is very expensive. An operating room outfitted to perform. open-heart surgery costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. From 1982 to 1989 the number of hospitals with open-heart-surgery facilities grew by 33%, and the most rapid growth occurred among smaller and moderate-sized hospitals. This growth was worrisome for reasons of both costs and quality. Underused technology almost inevitably decreases quality of care. In medicine, as in everything else, practice makes perfect. For example, most of the hospitals with the lowest mortality rates for coronary-bypass surgery perform. at least fifty to a hundred such procedures annually, and in some cases many more; the majority of those with the highest mortality rates perform. fewer than fifty a year.
According to the passage, the American health-care system______.
A.is working smoothly
B.is the best system in the world
C.is not working efficiently
D.in on the point of collapses
时间:2023-10-07 16:22:29
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You should have a health()if you work in a restaurant.
A . diploma
B . certificate
C . license
D . passport
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If a company decreases health benefits for its employees, they should increase salaries to____the workers.
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If sojourners decide to remain in the host nation, the adaptation process usually ends at the U-curve.
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According to the US National Center for Health Statistics, the increased obesity in the US is a result of_______.
A) the growing number of smokers among young people
B) the rising proportion of minorities in its population
C) the increasing consumption of high-calorie foods
D) the improving living standards of the poor people
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I would highly ______Tai Chi Chuan to you because it's really beneficial to your health if you practice it regularly. ( )
praise
organize
recommend
promote
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In another 25 years people will have to keep working as full-time employees until their mid- 70s if health permits.
A.Y
B.N
C.NG
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The _____ that exists among nations could certainly be lessened is if misunderstanding and mistrust were removed.
A:tension
B:strain
C:stress
D:intensity
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A meager diet may give you health and long life, but it's not much fun—and it might not even be necessary. We may be able to hang on to most of that youthful vigor even if we don't start to diet until old age.
Stephen Spindler and his colleagues from the University of California at Riverside have found that some of an elderly mouse's liver genes can be made to behave as they did when the mouse was young simply by limiting its food for four weeks. The genetic rejuvenation won't reverse other damage caused by time for the mouse, but could help its liver metabolize drugs or get rid of toxins.
Spindler's team fed three mice a normal diet for their whole lives, and fed another three on half-rations. Three more mice were switched from the normal diet to half-feed for a month when they were 34 months old—equivalent to about 70 human years.
The researchers checked the activity of 11,000 genes from the mouse livers, and found that 46 changed with age in the normally fed mice. The changes were associated with things like inflammation and free radical production—probably bad news for mouse health. In the mice that had dieted all their lives, 27 of those 46 genes continued to behave like young genes. But the most surprising finding was that the mice that only started dieting in old age also benefited from 70 percent of these gene changes.
"This is the first indication that these effects kick in pretty quickly," says Huber Warner from the National Institute on Aging near Washington, D.C..
No one yet knows if calorie restriction works in people as it does in mice, but Spindler is hopeful. "There's attracting and tempting evidence out there that it will work," he says.
If it does work in people, there might be good reasons for rejuvenating the liver. As we get older, our bodies are less efficient at metabolizing drugs, for example. A brief period of time of dieting, says Spindler, could be enough to make sure a drug is effective.
But Spindler isn't sure the trade-off is worth it. "The mice get less disease, they live longer, but they're hungry," he says. "Even seeing what a diet does, it's still hard to go to a restaurant and say: 'I can only eat half of that'."
Spindler hopes we soon won't need to diet at all. His company, Life Span Genetics in California, is looking for drugs that have the effects of calorie restriction.
According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true?
A.Eating less than usual might make us live longer.
B.If we go on a diet when old, we may keep healthy.
C.Dieting might not be needed. ~
D.We have to begin dieting from childhood.
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Drinking alcohol is a real health ()if carried to excess.
A、hazard
B、harm
C、damage
D、fatigue
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Wanda Cinema Theater A () 9:30—11:30 TitanicThe National Treasure 13:40—15:20Avatar The Forbidden Kingdom 18:00—20:10 TransformersHome Alone If you want to see a movie in 3D after school today, which movie could you choose?
A.The National Treasure
B.Avatar
C.Transformers
D.
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If America had a national poet in the 20th century, it is certainly______.
A.Frost
B.Pound
C.Poe
D.Whitman
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It is expected that through the study the nation's health, care costs
A.will be lowered in the long run.
B.will be significantly increased.
C.will be more than $200 million.
D.will reach $3.2 billion.
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听力原文:Italian scientists have raised new health concerns about the safety of using mobile phones, with research showing radio waves from the handsets makes cancerous cells grow more aggressively. When Fiorenzo Marinelli and his colleagues at the National Research Council in Bologna exposed leukemia cells in the laboratory to 48 hours of continuous radio waves they initially killed the cancer cells but then made the surviving tumor cells replicate more rapidly.
We don't know what the effects would be on healthy human cells, Marinelli told New Scientist magazine. In the Italian study, after 24 hours 20 percent more leukemia cells died than healthy cells but longer exposure to the radio waves triggered genes in the surviving cancer cells to divide aggressively.
The results of the study do not show any direct threat to human health but they support the belief of some scientists who say radiation can damage DNA and destroy the cell repair system, thus making tumors more deadly. But animal studies, including recent research by Australian scientists at the Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science in Adelaide, have shown that radiation from mobile phones does not trigger the growth of tumors.
The WHO (i.e., The World Health Organization) has called for more research into the potential health hazards of mobile phones and has urged people to limit their use of them. A British government inquiry, which concluded that there was no evidence that mobile phones are a danger to health, has advised parents to discourage their children, whose brains are still developing, from using them excessively.
What is the speaker's main topic?
A.Effects of using mobile phones on healthy human cells.
B.Risks of developing cancer involved in the use of mobile phones.
C.Damage to healthy cells caused by the use of mobile phones.
D.The potential health hazards of mobile phones on humans.
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听力原文: The head of the World Health Organization says important efforts are being made to fight the world' s serious health problems. But she says gains could be lost if countries around the world do not support new health programs.
Gro Harlem Brundtland made her comments to the World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland recently. She described a number of health programs expected in the coming years. However, Doctor Brundtland said the WHO' s 191 member countries must support the programs and put them into action. With this support, she said the WHO could reduce the number of deaths caused by malaria, AIDS, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases. She also said the death rate for pregnant women and babies could be reduced.
Doctor Brundtland told W-H-O members that good health is linked to economic and social development. For example, she described how smoking tobacco threatens to reduce the resources of all countries, especially developing countries. The World Health Organization estimates that four million people die each year from diseases linked to smoking. The organization expects that number to rise to ten- million a year in the next thirty years. Most of these deaths are expected in developing countries.
Which of the following infectious diseases is not mentioned in the report?
A.Malaria.
B.Enteritis.
C.AIDS.
D.Tuberculosis.
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The medical world is gradually realizing that the quality of the environment in hospitals may play a significant role in the process of recovery from illness. As part of a nation-wide effort in Britain to bring art out the galleries and into public places, some of the country's most talented artists have called in to transform. older hospitals and to soften the hard edges of modern buildings. Of the 2 500 National health Service hospitals in Britain, almost 100 now have significant collections of contemporary art in corridors, waiting areas and treatment rooms.
These recent initiatives owe a great deal to one artist, Peter Senior, who set up his studio at a Manchester hospital in north-eastern England.
The quality of the environment may reduce the need for expensive drugs when a patient is recovering form. an illness. A study has shown that patients who had a view on to a garden needed half the number of strong pain killers compared with patients who had no view at all or only a brick wall to look at during the early 1970s. he felt the artist had lost his place in modern society, and that art should be enjoyed by a wider audience.
A typical hospital waiting room might have as many as 5 000 visitors each week. What better place to hold regular exhibitions of art? Senior held the first exhibition of his own paintings in the out-patients' waiting area of the Manchester royal Infirmary in 1975. Believed to be Britain's first hospital-artist, Senior was so much in demand that he was soon joined by a team of six young art school graduates.
The effect is striking. Instead of the familiar long, barren corridors and dull waiting rooms, the visitors experience a full view of fresh colours, playful images and restful courtyards.
Compared with the total number of Britain's National Health Service hospitals, the hospitals which have art collections is only ______.
A.4%
B.40%
C.25%
D.50%.
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Anti-dopiing nation would be at a competitive disadvantage if other nations failed to ________.
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Wanda Cinema Theater A () 9:30—11:30 TitanicThe National Treasure 13:40—15:20Avatar The Forbidden Kingdom 18:00—20:10 TransformersHome Alone If you want to see a movie in 3D after school today, which
A.The National Treasure
B.Avatar
C.Transformers
D.
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If you__ smoking and drinking, your health will improve soon()
A.gave up
B.will give up
C.had given up
D.give up
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You can expect a long and health life if you give ()smoking
A.in
B.out
C.up
D.to
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There could be an even ______ () cost on your health, if you neglected your health.
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Saying they can no longer ignore the rising prices of health care, some of the most influential medical groups in the nation are recommending that doctors weigh the costs, not just the effectiveness of treatment, as they make decisions about patient care.
The shift, little noticed outside the medical establishment but already controversial inside it, suggests that doctors are starting to redefine their roles, from being concerned exclusively about individual patients to exerting influence on how healthcare dollars are spent.
In practical terms, the new guidelines being developed could result in doctors choosing one drug over another for cost reasons or even deciding that a particular treatment-at the end of life, for example-is too expensive. In the extreme, some critics have said that making treatment decisions based on cost is a form. of rationing.
Traditionally, guidelines have heavily influenced the practice of medicine, and the latest ones are expected to make doctors more conscious of the economic consequences of their decisions, even though there’s no obligation to follow them. Medical society guidelines are also used by insurance companies to help determine reimbursement(报销)policies.
Some doctors see a potential conflict in trying to be both providers of patient care and financial overseers.
"There should be forces in society who should be concerned about the budget, but they shouldn’t be functioning simultaneously as doctors," said Dr. Martin Samuels at a Boston hospital. He said doctors risked losing the trust of patients if they told patients, "I’m not going to do what I think is best for you because I think it’s bad for the healthcare budget in Massachusetts."
Doctors can face some grim trade-offs. Studies have shown, for example, that two drugs are about equally effective in treating macular degeneration, an eye disease. But one costs $50 a dose and the other close to $2,000. Medicare could save hundreds of millions of dollars a year if everyone used the cheaper drug. Avastin, instead of the costlier one, Lucentis.
But the Food and Drug Administration has not approved Avastin for use in the eye, and using it rather than the alternative, Lucentis, might carry an additional, although slight, safety risk. Should doctors consider Medicare’s budget in deciding what to use?
"I think ethically(在道德层面上)we are just worried about the patient in front of us and not trying to save money for the insurance industry or society as a whole," said Dr. Donald Jensen.
Still, some analysts say that there’s a role for doctors to play in cost analysis because not many others are doing so. "In some ways," said Dr. Daniel Sulmasy, "it represents a failure of wider society to take up the issue."
57.What do some most influential medical groups recommend doctors do?
A.Reflect on the responsibilities they are supposed to take.
B.Pay more attention to the effectiveness of their treatments.
C.Take costs into account when making treatment decisions.
D.Readjust their practice in view of the cuts in health care.
58.What were doctors mainly concerned about in the past?
A.Specific medicines to be used.
B.Professional advancement.
C.Effects of medical treatment.
D.Patients’ trust.
59.What may the new guidelines being developed lead to?
A.The redefining of doctors’ roles.
B.Conflicts between doctors and patients.
C.Overuse of less effective medicines.
D.The prolonging of patients’ suffering.
60.What risk do doctors see in their dual role as patient care providers and financial overseers?
A.They may be involved in a conflict of interest.
B.They may be forced to divide their attention.
C.They may have to use less effective drugs.
D.They may lose the respect of patients.
61.What do some experts say about doctors’ involvement in medical cost analysis?
A.It may add to doctors’ already heavy workloads.
B.It will help to save money for society as a whole.
C.It results from society’s failure to tackle the problem.
D.It raises doctors’ awareness of their social responsibilities.
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在窗体上画—个命令按钮,其名称为Command1,然后编写如下事件过程: Private Sub Command1_Click() a$="National Computer Rank Examination" n=Len(a$) s=0 For i=1 To n b$=Mid(a$,i,1) Ifb$="n" Then s=s+1 End If Next i Print S End Sub 程序
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在窗体上画一个命令按钮,其名称为Command1,然后编写如下事件过程: Private Sub Command1_Click() aS="National Computer Rank Examination" n=Len(a$) s=0 For i=1 To nb$=Mid(as,i,1)If b$="n"Then s=s+1End If Next i Print S End Sub 程序运行后
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If you save money this week and lend it to your flatmate to buy food for consumption, your act of personal saving has increased national saving.()