Part B
Directions: In the following text, some sentences have removed. For Questions 41 -45, choose the most suitable one from the list A-G to fit into of the numbered blank. There are two extra choices, which do not fit in any of the gaps.
Canada’s premiers ( the leaders of provincial governments), if they have any breath left after complaining about Ottawa at their late July annual meeting, might spare a moment to do something, to reduce health-care costs. They’re all groaning about soaring health budgets, the fastest-growing component of which are pharmaceutical costs. 41．____________________________________________________________ What to do Both the Romanow commission and the Kirby committee on health care-to say nothing of reports from other experts recommended the creation of a national drug agency. Instead of each province having its own list of approved drugs, bureaucracy, procedures and limited bargaining power, all would poo
A. Quebec’s resistance to a national agency is provincialist ideology. One of the first advocates for national list was a researcher at Laval University. Quebec’s Drug Insurance Fund has seen its costs skyrocket with annual increases from 14.3 per cent to 26.8 percent !
B. Or they could read Mr. Kirby’s report : "The substantial buying power of such an agency would strengthen the public prescription-drug insurance plans to negotiate the lowest possible purchase prices from drug companies"
C. What does "national" mean Roy Romanow and Senator Michael Kirby recommended a federal-provincial body much like the recently created National Health Council.
D. The problem is simple and stark: health-care costs have been, are, and will continue to increase faster than government revenues.
E. According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, prescription drug costs have risen since 1997 at twice the rate of overall heahh-care spending. Part of the increase comes from drugs being used to replace other kinds of treatments. Part of it arises from new drugs costing more than older kinds. Part of it is higher prices.
F. So, if the provinces want to run the health-care show, they should prove they can run it, starting with an interprovincial health list that would end duplication, save administrative costs, prevent one province from being played off against another, and bargain for better drug prices.
G. Of course the pharmaceutical companies will scream. They like divided buyers, they can lobby better that way. They can use the threat of removing jobs from one province to another. They can hope that, if one province includes a drug on its list, the pressure will cause others to include it on theirs. They wouldn’t like a national agency, but self- interest would lead them to deal with it.
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