Aaron the outspoken: do all roads lead to NHI?

• Three months into his second term as health minister, Aaron Motsoaledi shares his plans for rolling out national health insurance (NHI).

• Undaunted by legal challenges and political opposition, he says the government won’t continue subsidising private medical care to the tune of “R100bn a year”.

• People who say the current health-care system should be “fixed first” are a “joke”, because NHI is the solution, he says.

• But he admits that the NHI Act isn’t set in stone. Any supposed mistakes, like asylum seekers and undocumented migrants being unable to access HIV treatment, must be “corrected”.

• That, however, doesn’t mean the ANC would compromise on medical aids, says Motsoaledi — they will be scrapped under the NHI, at least in their current form, because the NHI Fund will be a giant state-funded medical scheme serving all South Africans. 

This story was produced by the Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism. Sign up for the newsletter.