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  3. The Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, was supposed to transform American health insurance. Critics have long feare

The Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, was supposed to transform American health insurance. Critics have long feare

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问题     The Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, was supposed to transform American health insurance. Critics have long feared that it would do much more. Republicans have cast Obamacare as a job-killing, economy-crushing villain. On February 4th they appeared to get more ammunition from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
    The CBO, as part of its projection of economic growth over the next decade, estimates that Obamacare will lower full-time employment by 2.3m in 2021, compared with what might have been without reform, and by 2.5m in 2025. The main reason is not that firms are already slashing jobs to avoid the burden the law imposes, as Republicans have complained, but that Americans will choose to work less.
    The insight that Obamacare would lower the supply of labour is not new, but the magnitude of the CBO’s estimate is—the 2.3m drop in 2021 is nearly three times larger than the CBO’s earlier projection. Many factors account for the decline. Chief among them is the effect of subsidies for health insurance. To help Americans buy coverage on new health "exchanges", Obamacare offers tax credits to those earning between 100% and 400% of the federal poverty line (about $11,500 to $46,000 for a single adult). Those tax credits are offered on a sliding scale, by income, so workers in effect pay a higher tax rate as their wages rise. This may dissuade them from trying to earn more.
    The White House, mining the report for good news, argued that Obamacare liberates American workers. "At the beginning of this year, we noted that as part of this new day in health care, Americans would no longer be trapped in a job just to provide coverage for their families, and would have the opportunity to pursue their dreams," the White House press secretary said in a statement. "This CBO report bears that out."
    The supply-side effects are not all bad. Some Americans, no longer tied to their employer-provided insurance, may feel freer to take better jobs or start their own businesses. But this effect is unlikely to offset the ranks of people who choose to work less, or not at all. And although leisure is often agreeable, does America really want to encourage its citizens to put their feet up?
The main cause of employment decline is ______.
选项 A、the failure of subsidy policy
B、economic crisis
C、medical insurance
D、health care system
答案C
解析 根据题干中的“main cause”，“employment decline”和出题顺序定位到第三段。该段第二句和第三句指出：Many factors account for the decline. Chief among them is the effect of subsidies for health insurance. 其中的“decline”就是指“employment decline”；“Chief among them”相当于题干中的“main cause”，故确定答案来自该句Chief among them之后的内容。即答案为：effect of subsidies for health insurance(医疗保险补助金的影响)。四个选项分别为：A“补助金政策的失败”，B“经济危机”，C“医疗保险”，D“卫生保健体系”。与subsidies for health insurance最接近、也是最直接的一项是C，medical insurance，故该项为答案。
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