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  3. Faith in medicine runs deep in America. We spend more per person on health c

Faith in medicine runs deep in America. We spend more per person on health c

游客2025-03-27  36
问题     Faith in medicine runs deep in America. We spend more per person on health care than any other nation. Whether we eat too much or exercise too little, whether we’re turning gray or feeling blue, we look to some pill or procedure to make us better.
    We assume that devoting ever more dollars to medicine will bring us longer, healthier lives. But there is mounting evidence that each new dollar we devote to the current health care system brings small and diminishing returns to public health. Today the United States spends more than $4,500 per person per year on health care. Costa Rica spends less than $300. Yet life expectancy at birth is nearly identical in both countries.
    Despite the highly publicized "longevity revolution," life expectancy among the elderly in the United States is hardly improving. Yes, we are an aging society, but primarily because of falling birthrates. Younger Americans, meanwhile, are far more likely to be disabled than they were 20 years ago. Most affected are people in their thirties, whose disability rates increased by nearly 130 percent, due primarily to overweight.
    Why has our huge investment in health care left us so unhealthy? Partly it is because so many promised "miracle cures," from interferon to gene therapies, have proven to be ineffective or even dangerous. Partly it’s because health care dollars are so concentrated on the terminally ill and the very old that even when medical interventions "work," the gains to average life expectancy are small And partly it is because of medical errors and adverse reaction to prescription drugs, which cause more deaths than motor vehicle accidents, breast cancer or AIDS. Each year roughly 200,000 seniors suffer fatal or life-threatening "adverse drug events" due to improper drug use or drug interaction.
    Why don’t Americans live any longer than Costa Ricans? Overwhelmingly, it’s because of differences ill behavior. Americans exercise less, eat more, drive more, smoke more, and lead more socially isolated lives. Even at its best, modern medicine can do little to promote productive aging, because by the time most people come in contact with it their bodies are already compromised by stress, indulgent habits, environmental dangers and injuries. [br] It is implied in the last paragraph that______.
选项 A、medicine should be taken timely before it is too late
B、poor health conditions leave little room for medicine to work
C、great efforts should be made to develop new types of medicine
D、it is reasonable to question the effectiveness of medicine
答案 D
解析 最后一段暗示了美国人的健康问题是无法用药物解决的，因为他们的根源在于缺乏运动。
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