Answer:
Elective surgery due to its lower marginal utility per dollar of expenditure.
Step-by-step explanation:
The government wants to make medicare benefits available to more people, but to achieve this goal, it needs to make cuts in the existing medicare budget. The two areas where they are considering cuts are non-essential elective surgery and 6-12 month mental health care programs. Applying the concept of diminishing marginal utility, the budget cuts should be made for spending on elective surgery due to its lower marginal utility per dollar of expenditure.