LSAT 7 | Section 1 | Logical Reasoning: Q8

LR Question 8 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Coherent solutions for the problem of reducing health-care …

QUESTION TYPE: Most Strongly Supported

CONCLUSION: Solutions to reducing healthcare costs can’t be found in the current payment system.

REASONING:

• The current system gives providers and insurers incentives to shift costs onto others, including patients.
• Reforms in the 80s showed that cost reductions in one area just lead to increases elsewhere.

ANALYSIS: The key idea here is that the piecemeal attempts to reduce costs fail because the incentives in the system just move the costs around. They don’t actually reduce costs overall. So, only a system-wide or big change could meaningfully reduce total costs.

___________

1. CORRECT. This captures the central idea that only system-wide reform could reduce costs. It’s the most supported inference based on the balloon analogy and the failure of cost-shifting reforms.
2. The stimulus doesn’t mention salaries or income of healthcare workers at all. There’s no support for this claim.
3. This implies costs rise just because more money is available. But the stimulus doesn’t suggest that. It focuses on cost shifting, not on funding levels.
4. While this may be true in real life, the stimulus says nothing about technology or changing standards. This is unsupported.
5. Hospital bed capacity and emergency preparations are entirely new concepts that aren’t discussed anywhere in the stimulus.