The President officially announced the start of the Family Health Program (SFS) on a nationwide basis last Friday evening. On Saturday, as many predicted, there were serious hiccups throughout the system. According to El Caribe, there were displacements, illegal charges, a lack of the proper paperwork and confusion at several centers visited by its reporter, the UCE Medical Center in Santo Domingo, at the Gomez Patino Clinic and the Gynecological and Obstetric Center (where the President’s daughter was hospitalized). One patient said that the clinic wanted RD$3,000 pesos to accept her sick son, despite the fact that the woman has been paying health insurance premiums for three years. Such a request is in violation of the Social Security laws that stipulate a patient must be hospitalized and covered 100% under the SFS program. Another patient said that the doctor charged her the usual RD$300 difference between what her plan paid him and his fee. She said that this was the normal charge. However, the SFS plan stipulates only a RD$100 fee for consultations. In addition, it was apparent that the SFS data bank was not at all perfect, since several people consulted said that they appeared to be affiliated to a different health service provider (ARS) than the one they belonged to in reality. And, according to Public Health Minister Bautista Rojas Gomez, the patients have to insist that their doctors use the Unified Prescription form in order to access ARS funds for medicines. Diario Libre reports that the Superintendent of Health and Work-related Injuries (SISALRIL) is trying to plug the hole created by a lack of carnets that identify patients within the SFS system. After just two days of operation, some of the issues faced by patients have led to doubts as to whether the system will work at all. In the face of these problems the SISALRIL has issued Resolution 133-07 that guarantees service to all those in the database of the system that may have been displaced from their true ARS and who have begun to appeal their cases. Most people consulted by the newspaper said that they had just gone about their medical needs as usual, and their prescriptions were written on the normal forms, not the Unified Prescription forms demanded by the new law. Still pending are negotiations between the SFS and the clinical laboratories.