The new entitlement mostly affects those older than 60 with small pensions.

Jose Soto got one more doctor than he counted on when he went to a hospital for an ear problem. Physician-turned-president Michelle Bachelet stopped by to make sure nobody was charging him for the service.

Bachelet visited the San Juan de Dios Hospital to monitor implementation of her first measure as president: free health care for all patients older than 60 through the national health-insurance system.

The surprised Soto, a 63-year-old retiree, assured her he had not been charged.

"As you see, we fulfill our word," Bachelet said Wednesday.

Chile's president declared the policy at her first news conference, two days after her inauguration Saturday.

Although the presidential decree became effective immediately, there have been no reports of a rush to hospitals by the elderly. An estimated 80 percent of Chileans depend on the state health-insurance system, known as Fonasa, and most of those eligible for the Bachelet plan are retirees on small pensions, some as little as $56 a month.

This plan adds 135,000 people to those already eligible for free care, bringing the total to "well over 600,000 people, 52 percent of them women," in the nation of 15 million, according to Health Minister Maria Soledad Barria.

The ministry has budgeted an initial extra $1.5 million, which "is enough for a start because there are many people over 60 who already qualify for free care for other reasons -- for example, for being indigent," Barria said. "Of course in the future we will have to allocate more funds."

Some think that will have to happen soon.

The poorest Chileans were already getting free care at public hospitals but faced long delays for more complicated procedures, such as surgery.