There are tests to detect some of the rare genetic flaws that increase

Premise:There are tests to detect some of the rare genetic flaws that increase the likelihood of certain diseases. If these tests are performed, then a person with a rare genetic flaw that is detected can receive the appropriate preventive treatment.

Conclusion:Since it costs the health-care system less to prevent a disease than to treat it after it has occurred, widespread genetic screening will reduce the overall cost of health care.

My pre-thinking on assumption ( though does not match with the correct option) - What is assuming that advance technology would not be able to cure the diseases with less cost than the total cost involved with prevention and screening.

The argument assumes which one of the following?

(A) The cost of treating patients who would. in the absence of screening, develop diseases that are linked to rare genetic flaws would be more than the combined costs of widespread screening and preventive treatment. ( Correct)
(B) Most diseases linked to rare genetic flaws are preventable. incorrect perhaps few diseases will not be preventable, but argument is about less cost involved with prevention and cure of the disease )
(C) The resources allocated by hospitals to the treatment of persons with diseases linked to genetic flaws will increase once screening is widely available. incorrect out of scope
(D) Even if the genetic tests are performed, many people whose rare genetic flaws are detected will develop diseases linked to the flaws as a consequence of not receiving the appropriate preventive treatment.
(E) If preventive treatment is given to patients with rare genetic flaws, additional funds will be available for treating the more common diseases. ( incorrect . argument is about funds available but it's about cost comparison between preventive and curative action )

Straight A.

Conclusion: widespread genetic screening will reduce the overall cost of health care

Premise: It costs the health-care system less to prevent a disease than to treat it after it has occurred

Now, the assumption is quite clear to predict. The gap between the premise and conclusion is that the cost involved in using widespread screening and preventing a disease is not greater than treating the disease in the absence of screening. Choice A exactly fill the gap.

Hi Experts GMATNinja VeritasKarishma
nightblade354 GMATNinja2

I'm confused b/w A & B



So let's assume a country of 1000 of them 20 are having genetic flaws. (As it is rare genetic flaws)
Cost of treating patients (Here 20 ) > Combined costs of widespread screening and preventive treatment of these 20

$100 (Treatment Cost) > $25 screening + $ 50treatment

But the overall cost of treatment is $2000 if no screening, whereas for screening and preventive treatment it is 25x1000+20x50 =$26000(This is beyond the original cost borne by the government without the screening). Hence more burden on the government.

Hence I ignored this choice. (Another doubt is what does widespread screening indicate ?? Is it for the whole country/the 20 ppl who develop diseases?


Thanks in advance. Please help me to improve my thought process in such CR questions.

Negating an assumption will cause the argument to collapse.

Negating A indicates that the medical expenses of taking care of the generic disease are less than the cost of screening and prevention. This means that screening and prevention would not save money, killing the conclusion from the argument.

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Some rare genetic flaws that make some diseases more likely to happen can be tested and diseases prevented.
Prevention is cheaper than treatment.

Conclusion: Widespread genetic screening will reduce the overall cost of health care.

What is the assumption in this conclusion?

We are concluding that widespread screening and prevention will reduce overall cost.
But there is a gap. We know that preventive treatment is cheaper than treatment. But what about when we account for cost of widespread screening (means screen most people) and preventive course for all who have those genes?

Scenario 1: Say of a population of 1000, 5 people are found with those genes. So we screen 1000 people and do preventive treatment on those 5 people.

vs

Scenario 2: Say of the 1000, 2 develop the disease so we do treatment for those 2.

What costs more? We don't know. All we know is that prevention for 1 person is cheaper than treatment for 1 person.
To conclude that the first scenario costs less, we are assuming that widespread screening + prevention costs less than treatment costs of a few.
So our conclusion assumes option (A) i.e. option (A) must be true for our conclusion to stand.

(B) Most diseases linked to rare genetic flaws are preventable.
We don't need most diseases to be preventable. Even if some are preventable, and in their cases, if scenario 1 is cheaper than scenario 2, then overall health care costs will reduce.
Hence option (B) is not an assumption.

There are tests to detect some of the rare genetic flaws that increase the likelihood of certain diseases. If these tests are performed, then a person with a rare genetic flaw that is detected can receive the appropriate preventive treatment. Since it costs the health-care system less to prevent a disease than to treat it after it has occurred, widespread genetic screening will reduce the overall cost of health care.

The argument assumes which one of the following?

(A) The cost of treating patients who would. in the absence of screening, develop diseases that are linked to rare genetic flaws would be more than the combined costs of widespread screening and preventive treatment. - CORRECT. If not then we are in trouble to conclude they it is done.

(B) Most diseases linked to rare genetic flaws are preventable. - WRONG. Irrelevant.

(C) The resources allocated by hospitals to the treatment of persons with diseases linked to genetic flaws will increase once screening is widely available. - WRONG. Even if they don't our conclusion is not impacted.

(D) Even if the genetic tests are performed, many people whose rare genetic flaws are detected will develop diseases linked to the flaws as a consequence of not receiving the appropriate preventive treatment. - WRONG. Exception will always be there, however, this one doesn't even impact the cost aspect of the passage.

(E) If preventive treatment is given to patients with rare genetic flaws, additional funds will be available for treating the more common diseases. - WRONG. Cost aspect not touched neither impacts indirectly.

Answer A.