Sunday Times STLive By Chris Barron, 2012-03-25  So Many
Questions 25 March   Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has
announced the launch of a pilot project for South Africa's
National Health Insurance scheme.  When can we throw away our
private medical aid cards? That's still far off, a long way
away. We are still in the preparation phase.  How long will it
last? Five years. This is the phase where we improve
infrastructure, the quality of healthcare, send specialist teams
into the districts.  Five years for the pilot project? No, no,
we're not going to spend five years just in the pilot areas,
obviously. In the pilot areas, we would like to spend a year and
then see. If it works well, we will extend it to other districts
so that, over the next five years, we cover all the districts in
the country.  And if it doesn't work so well? Then it will show
there is a particular problem with a particular plan. Then it
will be foolhardy to rush it to other districts. When we realise
that we have a plan that is working w