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It's been two decades since the denialism war was won in South Africa. Now HIV scientists and government are pitted against each other once again, with one side saying the health minister is in denial over the impact of US funding cuts and the minister is accusing the activists and the media of overblowing the crisis and spreading disinformation.

Instead of the Aids denialism of decades past, it’s US funding cuts that could lead to up to 300 000 more HIV infections in the next four years. Activists like Sisonke Msimang say the past has some answers for the current fight.

The health department is convinced that all US government funding for HIV and TB projects in SA will end by September 30. The department has calculated that it needs R2.82-billion to plug the gap for the rest of the financial year after the Trump administration cut more than half of such support to the country in February. But these funds have yet to be raised, and the stakes are high.

In her nearly 30 years in public healthcare, Rolene Wagner has risen to lead an institution that many had given up on: the debt-wracked, conflict-ridden Eastern Cape department of health. Her upbringing has custom-suited her to the task.

Healthcare doesn’t come cheap and rolling out National Health Insurance will cost a lot of money. The NHI Act says that funding healthcare for all should come from tax. But with tax payers already under pressure, will there be enough money to cover everyone? We do some sums to look at different options.

South Africa is producing more doctors than ever, but many can't find jobs in the public sector — even though hospitals need them. The Health Beat team examines options for newly qualified doctors in a country where youth unemployment is at an all-time high and Trump’s funding cuts spell doom and gloom.

Community health workers — also known as ooNomakhaya in isiXhosa — fill a major gap in healthcare in hard-to-reach places. Which is why the National Health Insurance (NHI) needs to make sure they are part of the plan, writes Bulungula Incubator’s Sigrid Kite-Banks.

For the past decade, the Chiawelo Community Practice (CCP) in Soweto has tested how primary healthcare that starts within communities through things like exercise...

By the end of October, Business Unity South Africa (Busa) will submit a proposal to President Cyril Rampahosa with solutions to their concerns about the National Health Insurance Act. This follows a September meeting with the president. But is there hope for change? In this podcast, Mia Malan asks Ramaphosa’s special advisor, Olive Shisana, and Busa CEO, Cas Coovadia, what to expect.

Will patients be able to get quality healthcare from public hospitals once the National Health Insurance is in place — whether for lifesaving operations like heart surgery or routine check-ups for things like blood pressure or diabetes? Bhekisisa’s Health Beat team talks to a patient and his doctor at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital about their experiences — and what state hospitals can offer if run well.

Our Health Beat team takes you on a tour of some Gauteng hospital success stories — from an NHI-like project, the Chiawelo Community Practice in Soweto, to the lifesaving cardiothoracic surgery unit at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital.

August has been an incredible month for Bhekisisa. With 360 000 unique visitors and just under 430 000 pageviews, our traffic went through the roof. Read our monthly newsletter to find out what we were up to in August — and what our top five stories were.

On 22 August South Africa’s second — and highly controversial — presidential health compact was signed by the government and various sectors. The second compact is controversial because prominent organisations that served on the steering committee of the drafting of the first compact refused to sign it.

Compromise isn’t a word favoured by the Health Minister, Aaron Motsoaledi, when it comes to rolling out universal healthcare, despite objections from some of the ANC’s coalition partners. Mia Malan sits down with Motsoaledi to find out how he plans to deliver National Health Insurance amid legal challenges, little money and a system that needs fundamental fixing.

Even if it means the end of the government of national unity, the bit in the NHI Act that says medical aids will effectively cease to exist, won’t be scrapped, says Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi. But the Act could be adapted to allow everyone — including asylum seekers and undocumented migrants — to get HIV treatment.

When our profile writer, Sean Christie, asked Aaron Motsoaledi for a form of life story share, South Africa’s health minister responded with a swift biographical flyover. But Christie was more interested in a sense of the experiences that lie behind the bullet points, both good and bad.