Although many elderly citizens believe they are entitled to

Question

Although many elderly citizens believe they are entitled to healthcare benefits in their old age, some fiscally conservative officials are quick to point out that  providing healthcare benefits cost far more than other retirement benefits .

The first issue with this sentence is that providing healthcare benefits is being compared to other retirement benefits. This leaves me two answer choices.

1) healthcare benefits costs far more to provide than other retirement benefits do

2) healthcare benefits cost far more to provide than other retirement benefits do

OA is the 2nd choice. Would someone explain why?

My thought process behind costs:

"providing healthcare benefits" is a singular entity, which GMATPill agrees with but the S-V agreement is where I get confused. 
(Ex. An apple costs more than a banana.)

geometric · Answer

Please post all answer choices.

Posted from my mobile device

rjacobsMGMAT · Answer

Cost vs. costs here seems fairly straightforward here to me: the subject is benefits (plural), so we need to use the plural conjugation "cost."

The only thing that may be confusing is that "cost" can be a noun or a verb - when it's a noun, "cost" is singular and "costs" is plural. When it's a verb, the opposite is true.

damham17 · Answer

Thanks. I guess there was an error since the explanation classified "healthcare benefits" as singular.

raj4u · Answer

That is lucid and clear explanation ! thank you

srikirs007 · Answer

I understand "healthcare benefits" is plural but subject here is "providing healthcare benefits" which is singluar.
So 1 is correct. Can someone please explain why 2 is correct?

SOURH7WK · Answer

Your explanation is correct but in the options 1 & 2 the sentence is reworded. Here providing is reworded to "to provide" and now the subject is healthcare benefits.

Hurrydil · Answer

@rajacob. would you please explain how 'providing health care benefits' is plural?For my money, the act of providing as a subject, which is singular.

Skientist · Answer

@Hurrydil

My 2 cents@

What is being provided? Healthcare benefits. Who is providing them? It's not explicitely said but I think its safe to say someone or something is providing them. Let us say the government is providing them for example. Therefore, the sentence can be 'simplified' to:
The government   is providing   healthcare benefits   which cost  ......

In terms of S-V agreement, noun 1 agrees with verb 1 and noun 2 agrees with verb 2.

Hope that helps

B.

crashVcrush · Answer

Although many elderly citizens believe they are entitled to healthcare benefits in their old age, some fiscally conservative officials are quick to point out that providing   healthcare benefits    cost    far  more than  other     retirement benefits

The reduced stem : H Benefits.............. COST .........more than............R benefits

H Benefits ( plural) need to be paired up with plural verb ( COST )

leading to OA 2.

Hurrydil · Answer

@ brad. thanks for the tip. In your example you clearly solved the agreement issue. However, the original sentence I was referring to uses 'providing' as a gerund, not as a 'verb'. My question is this: Can the noun form of 'providing' be plural? For instance, supporting elders (is/are) a daunting task.

Need experts here.

Need experts here.

rjacobsMGMAT · Answer

This would be a correct sentence:

Although many elderly citizens believe they are entitled to healthcare benefits in their old age, some fiscally conservative officials are quick to point out that providing healthcare benefits  costs  far more than  providing  other retirement benefits.

Here, the subject of "costs" is the gerund "providing," as you correctly observe Hurrydil! The gerund is singular (it cannot be plural), so I should use "costs." And, if "providing" is a gerund, then I need to say "providing" again after the comparison signal "far more than." So yes, this would be one way to fix the sentence.

HOWEVER: notice that the word "providing" falls  within the underlined portion of the original sentence!  In BOTH answer choices, the word "providing" gets eliminated (and moved to later in the sentence), which means our new subject must be healthcare benefits (plural). Make sure you realize where the underline starts and ends!

qweert · Answer

Although many elderly citizens believe they are entitled to healthcare benefits in their old age, some fiscally conservative officials are quick to point out that providing healthcare benefits cost far more than other retirement benefits.

1) healthcare benefits costs far more to provide than other retirement benefits do -  healthcare benefits costs is incorrect 
2) healthcare benefits cost far more to provide than other retirement benefits do -  healthcare benefits cost is correct

russ9 · Answer

Hi

Why isn't "healthcare benefits" one of those "army/group" singular subjects? Isn't it referring to an entity? Shouldn't it be singular?

Thanks!

VerbalBot · Answer

Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

Thanks to another GMAT Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

Want to see all other topics I dig out? Follow me (click follow button on profile). You will receive a summary of all topics I bump in your profile area as well as via email.

Although many elderly citizens believe they are entitled to

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Although many elderly citizens believe they are entitled to

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards