<https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/11/south-korea-beating-co...> outh Korea is one of the few countries that has succeeded in flattening the coronavirus curve. Its policy of testing, tracing and treating without lockdowns has been widely lauded. Some attribute this to South Korea’s experience of having dealt with previous epidemics such as Sars and Mers. Commentators in the US tend to stress the country’s effective leadership, contrasting it with that of Donald Trump’s. Others point to cultural factors, such as the willingness of the public to sacrifice privacy for the greater good. What is often overlooked, though, is that at the roots of South Korea’s success against Covid-19 are a well-funded and efficient system of delivering public services. Without this baseline infrastructure, the policy of test, trace and treat could not have been sustained or expanded to the degree that it has. Likewise, effective leadership cannot achieve much if it lacks a well-oiled public service system that can deliver. Take South Korea’s biggest international airport, Incheon. As a publicly managed airport, it is consistently ranked among the best in the world. Likewise, the Seoul metro system is world renowned for its cheap fares and efficiency, making it one of the top five underground systems. By far the most impressive aspect is South Korea’s single-payer healthcare system which was ranked the first among OECD countries in 2015. Although hospitals in Korea are mostly privately run, 97% of the Korean population is covered by the compulsory national health insurance scheme. This balance between privatised hospitals and public insurance system has ensured universal accessibility and ample resources, proving its effectiveness in the coronavirus crisis. How did South Korea achieve this? Unlike in western Europe after the second world war, establishing a welfare system was not the priority of the dictatorships that ruled the country. Like many developing nations in Asia, the emphasis was on industrialisation and economic growth. At the same time, the dictatorship invested heavily in public infrastructure, viewing it as indispensable to Korea’s growing industries. In 1977, the country’s first national health insurance system was introduced, although this was nothing like the comprehensive healthcare of today. [...]