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Re: The government is aiming to roll out an ambitious project for providin [#permalink]
In this question our aim is to find an answer option that weakens the argument that generic medicine will not help the majority of population. Option B states that majority of medicines prescribed in these facilities are generic and thereby weakening the claim.
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Re: The government is aiming to roll out an ambitious project for providin [#permalink]
payalkhndlwl,

The key difference is going to the doctor vs getting medicines, these two things aren't the same.

In B, even if people don't visit the facilities themselves, it still remains that of drugs that ARE actually prescribed, most of them are generics. So it doesn't matter what percentage visits the doctor. The total percentage of drugs prescribed that are generics is what we want to focus on.

In D, even if people do visit the doctor and avail the public health services, we don't know whether they are actually buying the medicines or not, or even if the generic medicines are what is prescribed. It could be that the doctor prescribes nothing, or that she prescribes something that is branded.

The key thing that you wanna look out for in such assumption questions is to NOT make your OWN assumptions. In both cases, you considered what percentage might go, or the likelihood that generics would be prescribed. We don't actually know these things, so we can't make an assumption ourselves either way.

Hope this helped!

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Re: The government is aiming to roll out an ambitious project for providin [#permalink]
Expert Reply
dcummins wrote:
The government is aiming to roll out an ambitious project for providing free medicines to its citizens at public health facilities across the country. Once the scheme is launched, the government will provide free generic medicines to all patients coming to public health facilities. Opponents of the project have criticized it, stating that since the plan covers only generic medicines, most of the citizens will be outside its purview.

Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the criticism made above of the Health Ministry’s strategy?


(A) The Health Ministry has made suitable arrangements to ensure that there is no shortage of generic drugs once the new scheme is rolled out.

(B) A survey of public health facilities across the country has revealed that more than half of the prescribed medicines at these facilities comprise generic medicines.

(C) Most of the country’s citizens prefer branded medicines to generic ones.

(D) The middle and lower income groups, which comprise a large chunk of the country’s population, still frequent public health facilities to resolve their health issues.

(E) The cost of running this scheme will eventually have to be borne by the citizens in the form of increased taxes.


Official Explanation



Answer: B

The question requires you to weaken the criticism of the argument, that is, you need to weaken the argument of the opponents. In arriving at their conclusion, the opponents have obviously assumed that most of the patients are currently prescribed non-generic drugs. B weakens this by stating the opposite, and is the correct answer.

(A) If most of the people are prescribed non-generic drugs, then it won’t matter if the generic drugs are readily available.

(B) The correct answer.

(C) The preference of the citizens is irrelevant. If they are prescribed generic medicines they will obviously go for these.

(D) This is irrelevant because it makes no mention of generic and non-generic drugs.

(E) The cost is not really our concern in this argument.
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Re: The government is aiming to roll out an ambitious project for providin [#permalink]
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