Proceeded by several generations of mandated insurance coverage extended to different groups based on employment, South Korea shifted from primarily private voluntary health insurance to government-mandated universal coverage in the 1989-1999.  This shift to single payer healthcare was finalized in the 1999 Unified Health Insurance Act, largely modeled on the Japanese healthcare model.  This means all Covid medical treatment and testing is in essence paid for by the federal government.

Single Payer Healthcare Model

- Identifying and protecting high-risk groups
- Securing requisite personnel and technology to rapidly surge capacity
- Free-of-charge medical care for all confirmed patients regardless of their nationality

Smith College

Categories of South Korea's Actions in Containing Covid-19

Duchâtel, M., Godement, F., Trichard, F. and Zhu, V., 2020. Fighting The Coronavirus Pandemic, East Asian Responses - Republic Of Korea: Mass-Testing, Targeted Investigations And The Transparency Issue. Institut Montaigne. https://www.institutmontaigne.org/en/blog/fighting-coronavirus-pandemic-east-asian-responses-republic-korea-mass-testing-targeted Accessed 13 July 2020.

Fighting the Coronavirus Pandemic, East Asian Responses - Republic of Korea: Mass-testing, targeted investigations and the transparency issue

Our World in Data. 2020. Emerging COVID-19 Success Story: South Korea Learned The Lessons Of MERS. https://ourworldindata.org/covid-exemplar-south-korea     Accessed 14 July 2020.

Emerging COVID-19 success story: South Korea learned the lessons of MERS

- A quick reaction to the Wuhan outbreak, with screening, tracing and monitoring of incoming travelers as early as the beginning of January
- As soon as the first case was reported, South Korea turned its focus toward preparing for large-scale testing.
- Mass-testing for free, including at drive-through test centers and for international travelers arriving in Korea
- Mass screening clinics set up to prevent possible Covid-19 patients from entering populated areas such as hospital


South Korea's Effort to Detect Covid-19

- Isolate and quarantine by transformed public facilities and retreat centers owned by private corporations into temporary isolation wards to care for COVID-19 patients while preventing transmission within households, and to relieve hospitals of bed shortages
- A government epidemiological investigation of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, at the origin of a large contagion cluster in the city of Daegu
- Intense and compulsory contact tracing
- Strict digital monitoring of quarantines, with fines and prison terms to deter violators
- Entry bans limited to Chinese nationals with a passport issued from Hubei province and anyone who has visited Hubei province within the past 14 days
- The government intervened in the production and market of masks and other PPE's to minimize the problems of shortage and hoarding as much as possible

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