The NHI is a proposed public fund that the National Department of Health intends will purchase all healthcare services from accredited healthcare providers and suppliers for all South Africans. Thus, the fund is intended to be the single purchaser of all the healthcare needs of all South Africans.

The Government believes that pooling all money spent on healthcare provision in the private and public sectors for healthcare centrally will address inequalities in the system and achieve universal health care.

People requiring care will follow a set out treatment pathway that includes accredited public and private sector facilities and practitioners, extending from primary healthcare provision and culminating, if necessary, in hospital. The intention, says the Health Ministry, is to reverse a hospital-centric current system. Throughout, patients will not need to pay for treatment at the point of service as the NHI will make these payments. Unsurprisingly, this framework will require an extensive reorganisation of the healthcare system. It is not yet clear where the funds required for this proposed system will come from, nor what the amount required will be.

This is not yet fully known. The exact list of services to be covered by the NHI is still to be finalised with discussions including how these services can be provided in a country with critical human resource shortages.