If ever there was a time when a country should come to appreciate the value of having a functional (semi) universal national healthcare service, it would be during a pandemic.
Despite there being glaring and unacceptable gaps in Taiwan’s health insurance and healthcare systems, which often have detrimental effects on unemployed people and those with severe illnesses who cannot afford necessary treatment, even with a government discount, most Taiwanese are the beneficiaries of a high-quality and relatively cheap service that has worked tirelessly to ensure that COVID-19 has not spread unchecked around the country.
