IRIN examines Cote d'Ivoire's temporary policy of free health care

While Cote d'Ivoire studies several options for financing public health services, its temporary policy of providing free care - "which the government said was aimed to help people after the post-election crisis - is causing grief for doctors and patients alike," IRIN reports.

"While the idea of free care to help people in the initial period after the crisis was laudable, the current situation is not sustainable, doctors said," IRIN writes. According to health care workers and residents, health centers have run out of medicines and they "depend on fees to replenish medicines, pay some staff and buy products to clean the facility," the news service writes. "Health workers point out that many problems in public health care are structural - management, organization, accountability - and must be addressed no matter how services are financed," the news service notes, adding that health ministry officials were not available for comment for the article (7/21).