As the coronavirus spreads, many are beginning to question the federal government’s ability to contain and mitigate this crisis. One group, however, remains confident that the government could do more if given the chance.
That group is led by none other than Bernie Sanders, an out-and-proud socialist who is using the coronavirus outbreak to push for a single-payer healthcare system. COVID-19 and the current testing shortage, he improbably argues, is actually proof that the United States would be better served by a nationalized bureaucratic healthcare system. “It has never been more important to finally guarantee healthcare as a human right by passing Medicare for All,” he said in a Feb. 27 statement.
Sanders isn’t the only one, either. Sen. Ed Markey issued a similar statement on Friday afternoon, and he was joined by several other Democrats.
You know what would make everyone feel better right now? A single payer healthcare system.
— Ed Markey (@EdMarkey) March 13, 2020
One glance at how this virus has affected the rest of the world, however, quickly dispels this idea. Italy, which has a single-payer healthcare system, has seen its hospitals overwhelmed. Hundreds of elderly citizens are going without treatment. Hundreds more have died already. Its system was woefully unprepared for this pandemic, and, as a result, the country has been unable to react to COVID-19’s effects in a timely fashion. The result has been disastrous.
In Britain, ventilators are in vastly short supply. Intensive care beds have already been filled, and doctors are beginning to tire, one physician told the New York Times. The British socialized healthcare system, which American socialists often tout as a base model, has been incapable of handling this outbreak, even though the United Kingdom has been dealing with far fewer cases than other parts of the world.
The U.S. government can and should do more to help the public prepare for coronavirus’s continued spread. Already, the Trump administration has adopted a hands-on approach, working with health insurance companies to wave co-pays, partnering with Congress to provide two weeks of paid sick leave, and providing additional funding for small businesses as economic activity slows.
The greatest amount of relief, however, has not come from the federal government but from the private sector. At least two vaccines have been submitted to the Food and Drug Administration for approval, and several private health companies, such as the Michigan-based NeuMoDx, have rolled out technology that can be adapted and used to test for the coronavirus. All of this happened within a matter of weeks.
“You have to embrace the private sector,” Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during a press conference Friday afternoon. “You can’t do it without it.”
Compare this to the federal government’s response, which has been lethargic at best and negligent at worst. We’ve known about this virus for months, yet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s early screening process was “slow” and full of “missteps,” as Fauci has readily admitted. Even now, testing is severely limited in even the states that have done the most to expand it.
The simple truth is that government is not very good at handling fast-paced, widespread problems. There is too much red tape, too much politicking, and too much fighting over territory. Just consider Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, whose unprofessional and partisan behavior is the norm in government. Rather than work constructively with the Trump administration on a bipartisan solution to a real-world problem, he went straight to blame-casting and name-calling the moment the first stateside infections reached his state.
Despite all this, Sanders and the other socialists would have us believe that the solution is more government intervention, more politicians and their egos, and more bureaucratic regulation.
This is nonsense. We have the “best public health system in the world,” as former FDA Director Scott Gottlieb said last month. It is equipped with “the best infection control procedures, well-equipped hospitals, and skilled providers,” he explained. If any country can beat the coronavirus and come out on top, it will be the U.S. And we will have the free market to thank.
