Fact Check: No, South Korea is Not Beating Coronavirus thru ‘Medicare for All’

CLAIM: South Korea is making progress because it has a single-payer health care system like “Medicare for All.”

VERDICT: False. So does Italy, and South Korea has benefited from the power of private industry in the fight.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) claimed this week that the U.S. faces a “severe disadvantage” in the fight against coronavirus because it does not have universal health care, or treat health care as a government-guaranteed “right.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who supports Sanders, made a similar argument on Twitter on Thursday, claiming that South Korea has had relative success in fighting coronavirus because it has single-payer health care:

Ocasio-Cortez is right that South Korea, where new cases are declining, has single-payer health care. So does Italy, where coronavirus has run amok despite early testing. Single-payer health care does not explain the difference.

A new report by Reuters that compares South Korea and Italy notes that South Korea’s aggressive coronavirus testing system has been accompanied by a widespread system of electronic surveillance that tracks potential contacts of those infected. “South Korea’s system is an intrusive mandatory measure that depends on people surrendering what, for many in Europe and America, would be a fundamental right of privacy,” Reuters notes.

South Korea has also had more practice with viral outbreaks, and developed its current system after the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak in 2015. Western countries have far less experience with such viruses.

Moreover, CNN reports, South Korea’s aggressive testing was made possible because of a private company called Seegene that was able to ramp up production. The government cut the usual red tape to allow the kits to be made.

Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez have attacked the private health care industry, especially the pharmaceutical industry, demonizing the profit motive in producing life-saving medicines — which is the reason many are initially produced.

Earlier this week, health insurance companies promised President Donald Trump that coronavirus testing would be free for all Americans who needed it, without any copays. That goal was achieved without “Medicare for All.”

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He earned an A.B. in Social Studies and Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard College, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.