In the next four years, the number of doctors, nurses, and

Question

In the next four years, the number of doctors, nurses, and other health care workers will increase significantly worldwide. Even so, the average compensation received by such professional will not decline but rather is likely to increase. This is due, at least partly, to the fact that the median age of the world’s population will increase steadily in this same period of time.

The argument above depends logically upon which of the following assumptions?

(A) The increase in the number of health care workers will be responsible for the increase in the average life span
(B) The compensation of doctors and physical therapists who treat the elderly will increase more than that of other health care workers
(C) As a group, older people receive more attention from health care workers than do younger people. 
(D) Geriatrics, a branch of medicine focusing on the health problems of older people, is the most expensive element of American health care.
(E) Increase in the median age of the population will occur in all regions of the world.

egmat · Accepted Answer

Hi, To find out the assumption, we first need to find out the premises and the conclusion to locate the gaps. Premise: In the next four years, the number of doctors, nurses, and other health care workers will increase significantly worldwide. Premise: median age of the world’s population will increase steadily in this same period of time Conclusion/Prediction: the average compensation received by such professional will not decline but rather is likely to increase I think some of the confusion could have been in identifying the conclusion. It's not stated directly using keywords like therefore, as a result etc. Rather, it's written in a counter observation style "Even so,...". This makes it quite tricky to identify it as the conclusion. However, reading the third statement gives us a clue that the second statement is indeed a conclusion. This is because the third statement tries to explain the second one, while the first statement is treated more or less a factual or certain statement. Now, after the conclusion has been identified, we can either move directly to the options or pre-think what could be an assumption. The strategy advised by e-GMAT is pre-thinking. So, let's try to pre-think an assumption: It says that number of workers will increase and the conclusion is that their average compensation will also increase. We know that increase in compensation could either be the result of increased number of work hours or increased payment per hour. So, older people should either provide more work to these workers or provide more payment for the same amount of time. The first part i.e. more work, is what is given in option C. Therefore, this is the correct choice. For completion, let's look at other choices too: (A) The increase in the number of health care workers will be responsible for the increase in the average life span - Incorrect. No confusions. (B) The compensation of doctors and physical therapists who treat the elderly will increase more than that of other health care workers - We are talking about doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers as a group in the passage while this statement treats them differently. This statement will not even fit in the argument. Incorrect. (D) Geriatrics, a branch of medicine focusing on the health problems of older people, is the most expensive element of American health care. - We are not talking about America specifically. Incorrect. (E) Increase in the median age of the population will occur in all regions of the world. - What if this doesn't occur and only Japanese age? Can't workers salaries increase in that case? If salaries in rest of the world remain constant while salaries in Japan rise, average salary will increase. Since negation of this statement doesn't invalidate the conclusion, this is not an assumption. Hope this helps

Let me know if further clarity is required. You may also want to attend the event this weekend to learn how to improve by up to 70 points in 25 days. https://e-gmat.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Click2register.png Thanks, Chiranjeev

MBAPrepCoach · Answer

Is this an official guide question? Because I don't think it seems all that representative. You have to make quite a few assumptions to get to the conclusion. Like why would we assume that they would increase the salary.

Just because there might be higher demand doesn't necessarily mean that there will be a salary increase.

And how are we to really know increase in median age equates to higher salary and more demand for healthcare. It sounds logical, but there are a lot of things that sound logical and they are not the right answer.

Just a crappy question all the way around in my opinion.

Farrell Dyan Hehn, MBA
Admissions Consultant & Verbal Strategist MBAPrepCoach.com

sanjay_gmat · Answer

median age increases because the number of older people increase. The total health cost will increase with this trend only if the cost of healthcare for old people will increase. So, C should be the right answer.

E - doesn't necessarily need to be true. Even if not all regions see this trend, the average salary of doctors can still go up.

bigfernhead · Answer

I chose C.

B. The compensation of doctors and physical therapists who treat the elderly will incrase more than that of other health care workers

The reason I don't like this answer is because we cannot really assume that doctors and physical therapists compensation > healthcare workers. If physical therapists and healthcare workers compensation > doctors, the average compensation is still going up.

I feel that the way this answer is worded is very limiting.

IndianExpress · Answer

I thought of this as a Demand-Supply problem.

It states that the supply of resources (doctors, nurses etc.) is expected to increase. The increase in supply tends to decrease the price (compensation/salary). However, as it states, the average compensation is not expected to decline instead likely to rise. 
The above scenario (increase in supply and simultaneous increase in price) can only happen if the demand (of healthcare services) also increases.
Now, it tries to explain the above scenario (increase in supply and simultaneous increase in price) by saying that this is due to (at-least partly) increase in median age.
However, an increase in median age does not link-up with the demand thing unless it can be deduced that the increase in median age is likely to increase demand (of healthcare services).

Option C exactly says that.

Click 'Kudos' if you liked my explanation.

egmat · Answer

Hi,

I agree with you that technically it should be "require" instead of "receive". The demand of doctors exist due to the requirement of the people, not due to preferences of the doctors themselves.

Technically, you are right.

However, there are two reasons in support of option C:
1. As we have seen, there is no better option than C.
2. There is nothing to suggest that doctors pay unnecessary attention to older people. I mean it would be a safe assumption to say that doctors generally provide attention per requirements of the patients, not because doctors have soft corner for the older people.

Now, since more attention is paid to these older people, more doctors are required for the same number of patients. Therefore, there will be increased demand for the doctors.

Thanks,
Chiranjeev

hdwnkr · Answer

Healthcare workers are going to increase in number.
The pay also is going to increase.
This is possible only when the supply of patients increases. This is further possible if the patients supplied into the market are those needing more medical attention, eventually paying more. Option C captures this idea.

Why not A? (A)  The increase in the number of health care workers will be responsible for the increase in the average life span 
The argument has nothing do to with lifespan. Speaking mathematically, the arguments says 4x + 2y = 10. Find X. While, statement 1 suggests Z is a boy.

Why not B? (B)  The compensation of doctors and physical therapists who treat the elderly will increase more than that of other health care workers 
Agreed that the increase in compensation increases the pay. But, what if there are no patients? What is the multiplying factor is minimal.

Why not D?   (D) Geriatrics, a branch of medicine focusing on the health problems of older people, is the most expensive element of American health care. 
it may be that the research is costly. Also, may be only medicine is costly. The use of words that narrow the spectrum in healthcare make this option less airtight.

Why not E?   (E) Increase in the median age of the population will occur in all regions of the world. 
What if the median age increases and nobody falls sick?

abhishekdadarwal2009 · Answer

The argument above depends logically upon which of the following assumptions?

(A) The increase in the number of health care workers will be responsible for the increase in the average life span
 The increase in the life span of the health care workers is out of scope. 
(B) The compensation of doctors and physical therapists who treat the elderly will increase more than that of other health care workers
 this is not the assumption but a premise which is not supported in the argument so out of scope. 
(C) As a group, older people receive more attention from health care workers than do younger people. 
 The reason why the salary of the healthcare workers will increase is because they have to work with more number of elderly who required more medical assistance than do younger people.this choice also passes the negation test. 
(D) Geriatrics, a branch of medicine focusing on the health problems of older people, is the most expensive element of American health care.
 geriatrics is a small portion of the entire medical and health support group which does not represents all the group so is limited , 
(E) Increase in the median age of the population will occur in all regions of the world.
 the point is already mentioned in the argument,an argument is something which is not explicitly mentioned in the argument.

mallya12 · Answer

Clearly B D and E are wrong.

But how do i eliminate A?

And Why is option C comparing older people to younger people? What if both recieve equal attention? Not able to understand C.

Please clarify my doubt

gmexamtaker1 · Answer

mallya12

Focus on the parts of the argument that talk about people age , increase of the personnel and increase of the compensation, this 3 can only correlate, if we assume that the elder people will need more attention, if young individuals seek medical care more than the elder population then the argument doesn't make sense.

btrg · Answer

mallya12 
(C) As a group, older people receive more attention from health care workers than do younger people. – Older people require more attention and Median increases when number of older people increase. Hence negating this will weaken the arg.

eg. lets take a set of 5 no.s { 2,4,6,8,10} - median - 6. Now add few numbers more than median it becomes {2,4,6,8,10,12,14} - median is 8. hence median increase on increasing the number of older people. And if Older people don't require much attention then the argument will fail. Hence C has to be assumed, the more the old age people -> more attention -> more increase in sal

prateekchugh · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

Step 1: Identify the Question Type 
The question stem instructs us to seek an assumption on which the argument depends.
 Step 2: Untangle the Stimulus 
First identify the conclusion: The number of health care workers is about to rise, as is the average
compensation of those workers. Next, find the evidence: The median age of the world and, by extension,
the number of elderly people are increasing.
 Step 3: Predict the Answer 
To find the central assumption, link the terms of the evidence with the terms of the conclusion. The
conclusion centers on more workers who’ll get more money. The evidence centers on more elderly.
The assumption, which links the evidence and the conclusion, must center on the idea that the
elderly are especially likely to require the services of health care workers.
 Step 4: Evaluate the Choices 
(C) is the best match for our prediction and, thus, the correct answer. (A) gets the cause-and-effect
relationship from the argument in the wrong order, since the author argues that the increase in
life span will be responsible for an increase in the number of health care workers. (B) draws an
irrelevant comparison. The author argues that the average compensation received by all health care
workers will increase. (D) certainly doesn’t have to be true—the conclusion can still follow from the
evidence even if there are elements of American health care that are more expensive than geriatrics.
(E) is similarly extreme. It need not be true that the median age of the population will increase in
every corner of the globe. Choice (C) is the correct answer.

Oppenheimer1945 · Answer

C) As a group, older people receive more attention from health care workers than do younger people.

It talks about attention and not compensation.
Moreover, it talks only about health care workers, but the passage says about doctors, nurses, and other health care workers.

How can this universally be an assumption?

Tiffsootmoot8 · Answer

The statement " median age of the world’s population will increase steadily " implies that there will be more elderly people in the future.
If the income of the docs/nurses/workers has to increase, this obviously means that the older population must have a need for healthcare. Suppose the older population were perfectly healthy, then the need for healthcare wouldn't be any greater and consequently their incomes wouldn't go up.

Answer C correctly captures this assumption

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