IELTS Writing Task 2 prompt
In many countries the amount of money spent on treating illness is far higher than the amount spent on preventing it. Why is this the case, and what can be done to encourage people to live healthier lives?
Source practice test: IELTS Writing Test 10
Band 9 model answer
Expert-level response
Across much of the world, healthcare budgets are dominated by the cost of curing sickness rather than averting it, even though prevention is generally cheaper and more effective in the long run. This imbalance stems from both institutional incentives and human psychology, but it can be corrected through targeted policy and cultural change.
The primary cause of this skewed spending is that treatment offers an immediate, visible solution, whereas prevention yields diffuse benefits that only materialise years later. Governments and insurers are judged on short electoral or fiscal cycles, so funding a new cancer ward attracts more political credit than financing a smoking-cessation campaign whose results are invisible for a decade. Individuals behave similarly: a person experiencing chest pain will pay readily for emergency care, but few are willing to invest time or money in exercise or dietary changes when they feel perfectly well. Furthermore, powerful pharmaceutical and hospital industries lobby for curative funding, while preventive measures, such as clean air regulations or nutrition education, have no equivalent commercial champion.
Redressing this imbalance requires making healthy choices the default rather than the exception. Fiscal tools are one lever: taxing sugary drinks and tobacco while subsidising fresh produce and gym memberships shifts the relative cost of harmful and beneficial behaviours. Equally important is embedding health education from primary school onwards, so that habits such as balanced eating and regular activity become automatic rather than effortful later in life. Employers can also contribute by offering on-site fitness facilities and paid time for medical check-ups, since workplaces reach adults precisely when preventive habits are hardest to instil. Finally, primary care physicians should be incentivised, through bonus payments or performance metrics, to conduct regular screenings rather than simply treating patients once illness appears.
In sum, the dominance of treatment spending reflects short-term thinking by policymakers and individuals alike, compounded by industry lobbying. Reversing this trend demands a coordinated approach combining financial incentives, early education and workplace support, so that prevention becomes as visible and rewarded as cure.
Why this meets Band 9
- Task Response: both parts of the two-part question are answered with equal depth, and each cause in body one is matched by a corresponding solution in body two, showing a clear, fully developed position.
- Coherence and Cohesion: paragraphs are organised around a single controlling idea each, with cohesive devices like 'furthermore', 'equally important' and 'finally' used naturally rather than mechanically, and referencing is precise throughout.
- Lexical Resource: topic-specific vocabulary such as 'smoking-cessation campaign', 'preventive measures', 'fiscal tools' and 'incentivised' is used accurately and with natural collocation, avoiding repetition of basic words like 'healthy' or 'money'.
- Grammatical Range and Accuracy: a wide range of complex structures is controlled accurately, including concessive clauses ('even though prevention is generally cheaper'), conditional-style reasoning, and varied sentence openings that avoid a formulaic feel.
Band 6 sample answer
Competent but limited response
In a lot of countries, people spend much more money on curing diseases than on stopping them from happening in the first place. This essay will discuss why this happens and what governments can do to make people live in a healthier way.
Firstly, there are several reasons for this situation. One reason is that when someone is already sick, they need treatment immediately, so they are ready to pay a lot of money for it. On the other hand, prevention does not give quick results, so people do not think it is important. For example, a person who smokes will not stop just because someone tells them it is bad for their health in the future. Also, many people do not have enough knowledge about how to live healthily, and hospitals and medicine companies make a lot of money from treating sick people, so they do not really want to change this system. This is why the money goes mostly to treatment instead of prevention.
On the other hand, there are some solutions that can help to change this situation. Firstly, the government could put more tax on unhealthy things like cigarettes and sugary food, and this would make people buy less of them. Secondly, schools should teach children about healthy eating and exercise from a young age, because habits made in childhood usually continue into adulthood. In addition, companies can help their workers by giving them free gym membership or organizing sports activities, which would encourage people to exercise more regularly. Governments can also make advertisements on television to inform people about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle, which could change public opinion over time.
In conclusion, treatment costs more than prevention because it gives faster results and there is a lot of money involved in the medical industry. However, if governments use taxes, education and public campaigns together, more people might choose to live healthier lives and this could reduce the overall cost of healthcare in the future.
Why this sits around Band 6
- Task Response: both causes and solutions are covered and the essay stays on topic, but the ideas are more generic and less developed than a Band 9 response, relying on familiar examples like smoking rather than deeper analysis of institutional incentives.
- Coherence and Cohesion: linking words such as 'Firstly', 'On the other hand' and 'In conclusion' are used but somewhat mechanically, and 'On the other hand' is misused twice to introduce solutions rather than a genuine contrast, weakening logical flow.
- Lexical Resource: vocabulary is adequate but repetitive, with words like 'healthy', 'money' and 'people' recurring frequently instead of being varied with synonyms or more precise collocations.
- Grammatical Range and Accuracy: sentences are mostly simple or compound with limited complex structures, and there are minor errors such as 'make advertisements on television' and inconsistent tense use, though meaning remains clear throughout.
How should I balance the two parts of this question, the causes and the solutions, in my essay?
Give each part roughly equal space, ideally one full body paragraph for causes and one for solutions, since examiners check that both parts of a two-part question are addressed in similar depth. A strong technique is to make your solutions directly answer the causes you raised, for example if you blame short-term thinking, propose a solution that changes incentives, so the essay feels unified rather than like two separate lists.