健康(Health / Healthcare)題佔 Task 2 約 10%。這個主題最容易寫得像小學作文——「運動很好、蔬菜很重要」——結果 Task Response 卡在 6.0。Band 7 要的是結構性論點:不是「誰該注意健康」,是「責任如何分配、資源如何配置」。

五種子題

| 子題 | 典型提問 | |---------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------| | 公醫 vs 私醫 | Should healthcare be free at the point of use? | | 預防 vs 治療 | Is it better to invest in prevention or treatment? | | 肥胖 / 生活習慣 | Who is responsible for the rise in obesity — individuals or industry? | | 老化社會 | How should governments respond to ageing populations? | | 心理健康 | Should mental health receive the same attention as physical health? |

四個萬用論點

萬用論點 1:Individual vs systemic responsibility 個人 vs 系統責任

適用:肥胖、成癮、生活習慣、心理健康。

核心邏輯:別陷入「吃太多是個人選擇」的單薄論點。Band 7 會指出系統因素(食品產業、城市設計、社經不平等)。

Attributing rising obesity purely to personal choice overlooks the environment in which those choices are made. When ultra-processed food is cheaper than fresh produce, when neighbourhoods lack safe pavements, and when advertising relentlessly targets children, the problem is clearly structural as well as individual.

萬用論點 2:Prevention economics 預防經濟學

適用:公醫、預防、生活習慣、老化。

Every major public-health study of the past two decades has reached the same conclusion: investment in prevention yields far greater returns than treatment. A 2021 OECD report estimated that each dollar spent on smoking-cessation programmes saved approximately seven dollars in later healthcare costs — a ratio no treatment-side intervention can match.

萬用論點 3:Access and equity 可及性與公平

適用:公醫制度、鄉村醫療、藥價。

Health outcomes in any society correlate closely with access to care, and access in turn correlates with income. A system that relies heavily on private insurance almost inevitably produces two tiers of medicine — one for those who can afford timely treatment, and another for those who wait until conditions become emergencies.

萬用論點 4:Long-term demographic pressure 長期人口壓力

適用:老化、公醫永續、退休、照護。

Healthcare debates cannot be separated from demographic reality. In nations such as Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, where over 20% of the population is projected to be aged 65 or older by 2030, the arithmetic of a shrinking working-age population funding an expanding elderly one forces difficult choices that cannot be postponed indefinitely.

台灣考生的陷阱

台灣有全民健保,考生寫公醫題常下意識假設全世界都一樣——結果論點不成立(在美國、印度差很多)。另一個常見毛病是把「健康」跟「運動」劃上等號,忽略心理健康、公共衛生、醫療資源。寫健康題時先問自己:這題是在談個人行為還是制度政策?這決定你要用萬用論點 1 還是 2-4。

主題詞彙

| 中文 | 英文 | |---------------|----------------------------------------------------| | 公衛 | public health | | 基層醫療 | primary care | | 預防醫學 | preventive medicine | | 慢性病 | chronic conditions / non-communicable diseases | | 失能 | disability | | 預期壽命 | life expectancy | | 醫療可及性 | access to healthcare | | 共付額 | co-payment | | 健保體系 | healthcare system | | 超加工食品 | ultra-processed food | | 久坐生活 | sedentary lifestyle | | 心理健康 | mental wellbeing | | 醫療支出占 GDP | healthcare spending as a share of GDP | | 人口高齡化 | population ageing |

範例段落(預防 vs 治療)

A further point worth noting is the economic asymmetry between prevention and treatment. Treating late-stage type-2 diabetes, for instance, costs health systems roughly twelve times more per patient than the lifestyle interventions that might have prevented the condition a decade earlier. When governments allocate the overwhelming share of their health budgets to hospitals rather than community clinics and public-education campaigns, they are — counterintuitively — ensuring that costs continue to rise.

為什麼 Band 7:數字具體(twelve times, a decade earlier)、對比明確(prevention vs treatment)、一個抽象詞 counterintuitively 提升 lexical resource。

快速練習

題目:Some people argue that the government should be responsible for citizens' health, while others say individuals should look after themselves. Discuss both views and give your opinion.

試寫 §1(intro)+ §2(第一方的論點)。挑戰:§2 至少用上一次 admittedly、一次 nevertheless、一個具體數字。


延伸閱讀:Task 2 五種題型判斷・Task 2 常考主題 · 環境