Paraguay - public health care free of charge

"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.