The Eden district along the Garden Route and the OR Tambo district in the Transkei are among the 10 areas selected for the roll-out of the National Health Insurance pilot project.
This is due to start next month.
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said in Pretoria on Thursday that government wants to assess how the programme works for the 20% of the country's population that has been selected for the initial roll-out.
It will then be launched nation-wide after interventions have been identified and implemented.
The pilot aimed to improve the performance of the public health
system and ensure that South Africans had access to quality health
service.
It would focus on reducing diseases among women and children and improve the performance of the health system in the country.
Motsoaledi said the 10 districts were selected according to their socio-economic standing, their health service performance and demographics."Pilots will develop and test the norms and standards for the packages to be provided in the district under the NHI, to ensure acceptable standards of care."
He said 94% of the country's health facilities had been audited, and that this would help the department follow up on areas
that had to be improved. Health facilities would have to compile plans to present to the department detailing how they would solve the identified problems or shortfalls.
Once the pilot project was underway, the minister would visit all provinces to speak to concerned parties including general
practitioners, members of the private sector and traditional leaders.
Motsoaledi said no province would be allowed to deviate from any of the goals set within the pilot. The launch of the pilot programme was the first phase of the 14-year roll-out plan of the NHI. In the next 5 years, the department would add more districts to the selected 10, the minister said.
