Many policy experts say that shifting a portion of health-benefit cost

The GMAT will often add commas in places where they aren't strictly necessary, usually to set off a modifier or add clarity to the sentence. Don't look for absolute rules there--you're not likely to find them!

With that in mind, I can see why you'd expect ", but" to follow an independent clause. However, in this case, the GMAT has added a comma to "reset" and nudge us to look back and find parallelism. The sentence would read fine without that comma, but we don't want to rule out C on that basis, especially since all the other choices either break parallelism or mistakenly contrast the two different forms of help.

To convey the idea that shifting a portion of health-benefit costs back to workers has two complementary effects, the correct sentence must use not only X but also Y

Answer C

What is wrong with 'A'? 'But also' can also be used independently [without the use of 'Not only']

GMATNinjaTwo MikeScarn GMATNinja hazelnut generis VeritasKarishma Bunuel

Hi himanshurajawat,

But also alone leads to a meaning error. Not only X but also Y is like and. But also (alone) is more of a contrast. The intended meaning of the sentence is that something does A and B, not that something does A but also does B.

Many policy experts say that shifting a portion of health-benefit costs back to the workers helps to control the employer’s costs, but also helps to limit medical spending by making patients more careful consumers.


(A) helps to control the employer’s costs, but also helps-
Many experts say that doing something helps to control something and limit something else. There's no contrast here. Hence, it is incorrect to use the conjunction "but"; the correct conjunction to be used is "and".

(B) helps the control of the employer’s costs, and also
This means that the control is for two things.- helps the control of the employer’s costs (noun) and also Y. Y should also be a noun in this case. Instead, "and also" is followed by an infinitive structure. Also, "also" is unnecessary with the conjunction "and" here. Too many things out are of place! Get rid of this option.

(C) not only helps to control the employer’s costs, but also helps
Not only helps to control... but also helps to limit..
"helps" is NOT unnecessary after "but also". If we have to keep the verb common for both the things, we have to use the verb ("helps") before "not only"
In that case, the sentence would read- Many experts say that shifting a portion of health-benefit costs back to the workers helps not only to control the employer’s costs, but also to limit medical spending by making patients more careful consumers.
As we are using "helps" after not only, we have to repeat the verb after "but also".

(D) helps to control not only the employer’s costs, but
"not only.. but also" is the correct idiom. Eliminate.

(E) not only helps to control the employer’s costs, and also helps
Same as D. Eliminate.


Vishnupriya
GMAT Trainer

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