coronavirus crisis
With over 68,000 deaths and 1.2 million confirmed cases, the coronavirus crisis has produced real change in the world. The occurrence of a crisis has led to severe actions that relate to the ideas that surround the facts of the disease. According to Naomi Klein, impossible ideas become possible. Here, Klein argues that crisis leads to actions that are contingent on the ideas that are lying around. The primary function of responding to an emergency, according to Klein, is developing alternatives to present policies and ensure that they are alive and available.
The idea that the economy worsens would serve as a catalyst tor revolutionary change. The idea is presently visible because of the attempts to learn from the crisis hypothesis. The coronavirus crisis is a global pandemic that has stopped trading on Wall Street after a drop of 7%. Through this impossible ideas, Klein indicates that corporate lobbyists are coming up with possible solutions, such as suspension of the payroll tax. However, the approach would lead to severe economic challenges, and it would be impossible for the US to keep up.
The concept of a single-payer health system refers to a program that covers everyone under a single, government-financed insurance plan that offers comprehensive health care. In such an order, there is one provider network for various insurance plans, and everyone has the freedom to choose the hospitals, physicians, and community health centers they prefer. While this system has worked in countries such as Australia and Korea, the US is reluctant to implement it because it produces a business stimulus. The non-single system in America is less useful because it oppresses the less affluent members of society while serving the interest of the wealthy. Potentially, the non-single system increases the problem of diverse selection due to different regulations and requirements that apply differently. The non-single system does not guarantee universal coverage and leaves the costs uncontrolled. A notable benefit of the non-single system in America is that it includes a government-run plan and provides an array of insurance options as well as significant beneficiary–cost-sharing benefits.
In comparison, the US health care system is founded on a non-single system, unlike the South Korean approach that adopts a single-player framework. In the event of a crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the single-payer health care system is more effective compared to the non-single approach. Unquestionably, the single-payer system provides universal coverage and controlled costs. Similarly, the single-payer approach lowers the administrative expenses and monopolistic pricing, which promotes saving during a pandemic. Given that the economy continues to struggle during the coronavirus crisis, a single-payer system would encourage savings and channeling of more funds towards managing the epidemic, while offering meaningful universal access to health care.
Even though the US has experienced natural and economic disasters, the COVID-19 is unique. As an infectious disease, it kills people in addition to disrupting the economy more than any other disaster. According to Mike Davies, the consistent shortage or vulnerability of test kits has killed all hope of containment. Similarly, the virus is mutating as it runs through populations with varying composition of age and acquired immunities. Lastly, the COVID-19 virus is stable and little mutated, but its impact on under 65-age cohorts would differ in developing countries and amongst high poverty groups. The coronavirus pandemic means that the public health infrastructure remains a problematic circumstance with no escape due to the different and dependent conditions of the capitalist globalization that remains biologically unstable.