RENCES: Mastery Test 6 A. (1-5.) Read the following editorial. Then check (✔) the five statements which are most logically supported by the information given. 'The American health-care system is clearly in crisis. But only with the Barack Obama administration has the government sought an obvious solution: a nationwide program of universal health care-one that covers every single American-administered by the federal government. ³It's not that we could not establish such a system-dozens of countries have already managed to do so, with great success. "Americans simply have a gut- level conviction that competition and the profit motive-the free market, in other words-is the only way to maintain the "best health-care system in the world." "The truth of the matter is quite the contrary. "The American health-care system has the highest operating expenses (14 percent) among the systems of all other industrialized countries. 'The obvious reason is that for-profit corporations run most of the system. In contrast, the government system in Canada, often characterized here as "inefficient," runs with exactly 1 percent overhead. "Our own Social Security runs on about 2 percent overhead. 10You see the overhead when you go to a medical facility and spend more time filling out forms than seeing the doctor; when you count the number of staff talking to insurance companies on the phone, and realize that they rival the number of medical personnel in the office. "You see the overhead in the salaries of the CEOs of health-related corporations. 12In 2000, five top CEOs made annual salaries ranging from $11 million to $54 million. 13A system is clearly broken that simultaneously produces huge salaries for executives and yet pays nurses' aides salaries that do not allow them to live above the poverty line, or to afford the very health care they are providing. - 1. The Canadian health-care system is run on a not-for-profit basis. 2. Most American doctors oppose the idea of a universal health-care program. 3. The current American health-care system is wasteful and inefficient. 4. Executives of American health-related corporations oppose the idea of a universal health-care program. 5. Canadian nurses' aides are more highly paid than American nurses' aides. 6. The American Social Security program is run on a for-profit basis. 7. The American public needs to make a more informed choice about health care. 8. Many working Americans cannot afford health care. Continues on next page)