PARAGUAY: Public Health Care Free of Charge

[Judi Lynn]

PARAGUAY: Public Health Care Free of Charge
By Natalia Ruiz Díaz

ASUNCIÓN, Jan 6 (IPS) - "Did you have to pay for anything?" is the obligatory question these days in the waiting room at the Mother and Child Hospital in Fernando de la Mora, on the outskirts of the Paraguayan capital, where people still have doubts that the public health services are free of charge, as the government had announced.

"They took great care of me. I had my baby by cesarean and the operation was free, and so was the medicine," Gloria Ramírez, who gave birth on Christmas - the day nearly all public health service fees were eliminated nationwide - told IPS.

The measure was one of the campaign promises of centre-left President Fernando Lugo, a former bishop who took office in August 2008.

"Before I was admitted to hospital, I had planned on paying the fees. But luckily it was all practically free," said Ramírez.

Seven percent of Paraguay's population of 6.1 million currently have private health coverage, 20 percent are covered by the health services of the social security institute, the Instituto de Previsión Social, and the rest depend on the public health system.

But an estimated 40 percent of the population were unable to afford health care of any kind.

"What we are doing is making health care a right, regardless of a person's ability to pay," Diego Gamarra, director general of health services in the Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare (MSPBS), told IPS.

There are some 1,000 public health hospitals and health clinics in Paraguay.

"It is still necessary to improve the quality of health care, and the way patients are treated in public hospitals," said political scientist Milda Rivarola. "But without a doubt, free health care is the best thing that has been done so far in the democratic transition period, and is the measure that has had the most positive impact in terms of public services."

More:
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49901

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