Among lower-paid workers, union members are less likely

[RichaChampion]

___________

Can some one please delete this post.

[RichaChampion]

Ron Sir,

Please refer to this Post.

ha! fixed. thank you.

I am confused with your post. What did you fixed in your explanation, which seems to be 100% correct to me?
I find that your analysis was correct above. I am reproducing it here-

[

in this case, the COMMA -ING modifier could grammatically modify either the blue clause or the purple clause (which is nested within the blue one). from context, it should be clear that the modifier is meant to modify the purple clause.
(this is normally what happens in this type of situation with nested clauses: an attached COMMA -ING modifier will normally modify the embedded, smaller clause. there is no need to memorize the statistical rule for this, however -- in most cases, such as this one, the context will make quite clear what is being modified and what is not.)

the COMMA -ING modifier modifies the action of the purple clause, and also applies to the subject of the purple clause -- namely, the relative pronoun "that". this relative pronoun, in turn, refers to "lower-end insurance plans". so the rule still works.

Based on what you have explained here is my Understanding-

(D) that impose stricter limits on medical services and require doctors to see more patients, spending

that is a relative pronoun here and refers to plans

Let us write option D in such a way that it becomes more clear -

(D) that impose stricter limits on medical services and that require doctors to see more patients, spending

The second that was not written in actual option D, but was present in a subtle way and it was omitted.

Question: COMMA + spending is modifying which clause?

Ans: It modifies the clause/action i.e. is nearest =
that require doctors to see more patients

But that is a relative pronoun and stands for the subject "plans".

Therefore the subject that is being modified is finally plans.

[RonPurewal]

in these kinds of sentences, the "comma + __ing" modifier should pretty much always describe the NEAREST action.

if the modifier describes some larger, farther-away action, then that's generally going to be bad/confusing writing (unless the context is EXCEPTIONALLY clear).
the correct answers NEVER contain bad writing, so, you can safely disregard such interpretations.

here, comma + spending... is describing the nearest action, which is "...to see more patients". that's not strictly a verb, grammatically, but it is certainly an ACTION.

[RonPurewal]

also, remember that you should ALREADY understand ALL of the relationships between/among the words in the problem BEFORE you start looking at the answer choices.

this might sound demanding, but it's just "normal" reading.
if you were reading this sentence in a magazine or newspaper, or or the internet, you wouldn't continue reading until you understood EXACTLY how all the words related to each other—even if the sentence were poorly written.

in this sentence, it's clear that "spending less time with each [patient]" is a DIRECT CONSEQUENCE of having to "see more patients". (there are only so many hours in the day... so, if a doctor is forced to see more patients, then (s)he won't have as much time with each individual patient.)

...so, when you go to the answer choices, you should be ALREADY LOOKING for a modifier that's used for DIRECT CONSEQUENCES.
"comma + __ing" is perfectly suited to this sort of thing.

if you see a modifier in an answer choice AND THEN have to think about "what does this describe?", then you have failed at step #1.

never forget—step #1 of EVERY sentence correction problem is "what is the EXACT intended meaning?" "what are ALL the important relationships between/among these words?"
again, this isn't particularly demanding; it's just "normal" reading. it's exactly the same way you would read a book, magazine, newspaper article, or web page.

[Carie]

Dear instructors,

Can you explain the usage of "each"?
I'm quite confusing about the meaning of "spending less time with each".

Many thanks!

[RonPurewal]

Dear instructors,

Can you explain the usage of "each"?
I'm quite confusing about the meaning of "spending less time with each".

Many thanks!

think about the context of the sentence here. who is spending time with whom?