We carried out a household survey in Khartoum state in 2001 to analyse the characteristics of those who receive free public health services and to ascertain whether there are any impediments to cost recovery policies for health care use. Data were collected through interviews based on an adapted questionnaire. Those who had other income, always or sometimes had dependents and visited the health services twice in the previous 3 months were more likely to receive free public health
services. This does not support claims that beneficiaries of these services are the welloff.