新东方在线英语四级频道为备考英语四级的同学们整理了2022年12月英语四级考试阅读理解50篇：医疗消费，希望可以为大家带来帮助。
2022年12月英语四级考试阅读理解50篇：医疗消费
The health-care economy is filled with unusual andeven unique economic relationships. One of theleast understood involves the peculiar roles ofproducer or "provider" and purchaser or "consumer" in the typical doctor-patient relationship. In mostsectors of the economy, it is the seller who attemptsto attract a potential buyer with various inducements of price, quality, and utility, and it is thebuyer who makes the decision, Such condition, however, does not prevail in most of thehealth-care industry.
In the health-care industry, the doctor-patient relationship is the mirror image of the ordinaryrelationship between producer and consumer. Once an individual has chosen to see aphysician-and even then there may be no real choice-it is the physician who usually makesall significant purchasing decisions: whether the patient should return "next Wednesday", whether X-rays are needed, whether drugs should be prescribed, etc. It is a rare andsophisticated patient who will challenge such professional decisions or raise in advancequestions about price, especially when the disease is regarded as serious.
This is particularly significant in relation to hospital care. The physician must certify the needfor hospitalization, determine what procedures will be performed, and announce when thepatient may be discharged. The patient may be consulted about some of these decisions, but inthe main it is the doctor's judgments that are final. Little wonder then that in the eye of thehospital it is the physician who is the real "consumer." As a consequence, the medical staffrepresents the "power center" in hospital policy and decision-making, not the administration.
Although usually there are in this situation four identifiable participants-the physician, thehospital, the patient, and the payer (generally an insurance carrier or government)-thephysician makes the essential decisions for all of them. The hospital becomes an extensionof the physician; the payer generally meets most of the bills generated by thephysician/hospital, and for t/he most part the patient plays a passive role. We estimate thatabout 75-80 percent of health-care expenditures are determined by physicians, not patients. For this reason, the economy directed at patients or t.he general is relatively ineffective.
1.What's the author's main purpose in writingthis passage?
A) To criticize doctors for exercising too muchcontrol over patients.
B) To analyze some important economic factors inhealth-care.
C) To urge hospitals to reclaim their decision making authority.
D) To inform potential patients of their health-care rights.
2.In the health-care industry, the patients
A) perform the role of being "providers”
B) decide which physician to consult
C) never raise questions about price
D) never consult with the doctors
3.According to the author, when a doctor tells a patient to "return next Wednesday", the doctor is in effect___________,
A) instructing the patient to buy more medical services
B) warning the patient that a hospital stay might be necessary
C) advising the patient to seek a second opinion
D) admitting that the initial visit, was ineffective
4.Doctors are able to determine hospital policies most probably because_______.
A) it is doctors who generate income for the hospital
B) a doctor is ultimately responsible for a patient's health
C) most of the patients don't challenge the doctor's decisions
D) the administration doesn't know about medicine as much as doctors
5.The author is most probably leading up to_________.
A) an analysis of the role of the hospital administration
B) a study of lawsuits against doctors' malpractice
C) a discussion of a new medical treatment
D) a proposal to control medical costs