singh_amit19 wrote:
Personnel officer: The exorbitant cost of our health-insurance benefits reflects the high dollar amount of medical expenses incurred by our employees. Employees who are out of shape, as a group, have higher doctor bills and longer hospital stays than do their colleagues who are fit. Therefore, since we must reduce our health-insurance costs, we should offer a rigorous fitness program of jogging and weight lifting to all employees, and require employees who are out of shape to participate.
The conclusion reached by the personnel officer depends on which of the following assumptions?
A. A person who is fit would receive a routine physical checkup by a doctor less regularly than would a person who is out of shape.
B. The medical expenses incurred by employees who are required to participate in the fitness program would be less than those incurred by employees who are not required to participate.
C. The strenuous activities required of out-of-shape employees by the program would not by themselves generate medical expenses greater than any reduction achieved by the program.
D. The fitness program would serve more employees who are out of shape than it would employees who are fit.
E. The employees who participate in the fitness program would be away from work because of illness less than would the employees who do not participate.
I think its C.
A: This is irrelevant. Nothing is said that routine physical checkups are expensive.
B: this is a tricky answer, this is not an assumption. What if the medical expenses of those who participate are higher? Well those who must participate are unhealthy. What if the bills decreased b/c of the fitness program for those who are unhealthy and are less than without the fitness program. This is not an assumption.
Ex/ Overweight ppl: Med bills b/f fitness = 200 Med after fitness =130
Underweight ppl: Med bills b/f = 120 med bills after = 120
Overall cost is still down. thus, this is not a neccesary assumption b/c the bills dont HAVE to be less than those who don't workout.
D: We care whether the program decreases costs. This doesn't really fit our criteria. Again we can use B as our base to get rid of this choice. So what if more fit people use the program? As long as costs go down, not a big deal.
E: Again we can use the info from B to get rid of this choice. Also this one is out of scope. Who says illnesses equate to higher medical bills. requires an additional assumption. no good.
C: if the program causes more medical bills then the argument is negated. We have to prove that the author's conclusion is valid. This choice fits.