Financiamento do SUS e Covid-19: histórico, participações federativas e respostas à pandemia

Assessment of the COVID-19 impact on the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS) financing: an analysis of the financing dynamics of 2020 and 2021

BACKGROUND

After the establishment of the public health emergency of international concern in 2020, health systems worldwide and in Brazil observed the need to apply more extraordinary logistical efforts and possibly resources to combat the imminent pandemic.

METHODS

Using the historical series of public expenditures of the National Health Fund (FNS), 2015 to 2021, the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19, and a seasonal ARIMAX model, we sought to assess how the increase in the new virus infections affected the systematic financing of the SUS in Brazil.

RESULTS

There were signs of seasonality and an increasing trend in the expenditure variable, which in practical terms, only indicated that the resource contributions followed an increasing trajectory already underway before the advent of the pandemic. The 1% increase in COVID-19 cases, with a one-month lag, contributes to the 0.062% increase in the variation in FNS expenditures but a decrease of 0.058% with a two-month lag.

CONCLUSION

The tests showed no evidence to confirm a positive shift on FNS spending growth trajectory due to the increase of COVID-19 cases, only observing a significant increase one month after the occurrence of COVID cases, probably due to their worsening after this period, which was followed by a similar and comparable decrease in percentage of growth in the following month.

Individual and contextual factors associated with the survival of patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome by COVID-19 in Brazil

OBJECTIVE

To analyze the influence of individual and contextual factors of the hospital and the municipality of care on the survival of patients with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome due to COVID-19.

METHODS

Hospital cohort study with data from 159,948 adults and elderly with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome due to COVID-19 hospitalized from January 1 to December 31, 2022 and reported in the Influenza Epidemiological Surveillance Information System. The contextual variables were related to the structure, professionals and equipment of the hospital establishments and socioeconomic and health indicators of the municipalities. The outcome was hospital survival up to 90 days. Survival tree and Kaplan-Meier curves were used for survival analysis.

RESULTS

Hospital lethality was 30.4%. Elderly patients who underwent invasive mechanical ventilation and were hospitalized in cities with low tax collection rates had lower survival rates compared to other groups identified in the survival tree (p<0.001).

CONCLUSION

The study indicated the interaction of contextual factors with the individual ones, and it shows that hospital and municipal characteristics increase the risk of death, highlighting the attention to the organization, operation, and performance of the hospital network.

Crise sanitária e atenção primária: a atuação de assistentes sociais nos territórios

Resumo: Este artigo focaliza a atuação de assistentes sociais na atenção primária em saúde (APS), na pandemia do Covid-19. Discute a crise sanitária, problematizando a ofensiva ultraneoliberal e suas implicações na atenção primária em saúde cuja potencialidade assistencial foi esvaziada por meio de várias medidas tomadas pelo Governo Federal, como mudanças na Política Nacional de Atenção Básica e o Previne Brasil. Foi realizada pesquisa nos Anais do IX Congresso Nacional de Serviço Social em Saúde, destacando trabalhos sobre APS. Foi desenvolvida análise com base no materialismo-histórico-dialético, considerando a historicidade, mediações e contradições. Foram identificados desafios à atuação profissional, como o uso de Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação (TIC), o teletrabalho, a precarização da política de saúde. Entre as estratégias de ação utilizadas destacam-se: ações educativas, articulação com a rede socioassistencial, entre outras. Considera-se que a negação de direitos como método governamental distancia o horizonte emancipatório do projeto ético-político da profissão.

Judicialization of health: profile of demands for oncological medicines in a state in the central region of Brazil

BACKGROUND

The significant increase in access to oncological medicines through court cases suggests that constitutional guarantees of integral and universal care in the Brazilian public health system are uncertain.

METHODS

A retrospective observational study was conducted to analyze data from lawsuits requesting oncological medicines from 2014 to 2020 in the State of Goiás, Brazil, in state and federal courts. Sociodemographic, medical, and legal variables were statistically examined using descriptive, association, and correlation methods.

RESULTS

Women brought more than half (54%) of the 301 processes analyzed. The most frequent age group was over 55 years, with income below 3 × the minimum wage (total about USD$600/month), and their cases were promoted through the public minister and public defender's offices. The most requested medications, not on official public health system lists, were indicated for multiple myeloma and brain cancer.

CONCLUSIONS

Improved quality of life, frequently used as a justification, could be conceptually confused with increased survival. Finally, judicialization itself indicates that individual health needs arise even with properly defined and adequately implemented public policies. These needs should be considered for the adequate provisioning of services by the state to ensure the right to health.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Infectious Diseases in Brazil: A Case Study on Dengue Infections

Brazil is known for being a breeding ground for emerging infectious diseases (EIDs), such as Zika, dengue, and chikungunya. Given that it has been one of the countries most affected by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, this article aims to analyze the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the burden of infectious diseases in Brazil, especially that of dengue. Brazil is a unique territory with a heterogeneous population living in a tropical, wet climate favorable to infectious diseases. In addition, despite being one of the largest emerging economies in the world, the country has been exposed to political instability and a public health system that suffers from large funding shortfalls and a lack of coherent regulation. The findings from this study are multilayered. Firstly, as cases of COVID-19 rose at the start of the pandemic, cases of dengue declined drastically. This may be due, in part, to factors such as seasonal climate and distancing measures. Furthermore, the findings indicate that the diversion of resources away from dengue and other infectious diseases, and mobilization for COVID-19 testing and treatment, likely resulted in a serious underreporting of dengue. While Brazil has incorporated some of the lessons learned from past EID experience in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, the analysis highlights how the country's structural problems present pitfalls in the epidemiological fight. It was concluded that in a country such as Brazil, where infectious disease outbreaks are only a matter of time, pandemic preparedness should be prioritized over pandemic response.

Conjuntura política brasileira e saúde: do golpe de 2016 à pandemia de Covid-19

RESUMO Estudos de análise de conjuntura no campo da saúde coletiva têm ganhado espaço, contribuindo para sistematizar elementos da realidade e traçar cenários possíveis para uma melhor atuação na arena política. Embasado no materialismo histórico e dialético, este ensaio busca analisar a conjuntura política brasileira do golpe de 2016 à pandemia de Covid-19. O ensaio está estruturado em três seções: a primeira reconhece a importância de pensar o passado para se compreender o futuro, bem como as forças mobilizadoras e ameaçadoras do Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS); a segunda traça um perfil do projeto ultraneoliberal imposto à política de saúde frente ao golpe jurídico-midiático-parlamentar de 2016 e a eleição do presidente Jair Bolsonaro, em 2018, cuja moeda de troca englobou a redução da seguridade social; a terceira seção discute como a pandemia da Covid-19 foi conduzida pelo governo federal e entes subnacionais, assim como a atuação da sociedade civil e política organizada. Nas considerações finais, apresentam-se os desafios das forças progressistas para o ano eleitoral de 2022 e para sustentabilidade de um possível governo popular que garanta o direito universal à saúde, sendo este parte do desafio maior de retomada e garantia da própria democracia.

A resiliência das grandes cidades brasileiras e a pandemia da Covid-19

RESUMO O objetivo do artigo foi descrever a resiliência do gasto governamental com Ações e Serviços Públicos de Saúde (ASPS) no Brasil durante a pandemia da Covid-19 em 2020. Demonstra-se que o desenvolvimento do setor público de saúde contemporâneo foi baseado no federalismo cooperativo. Nesse contexto, a participação municipal no financiamento foi consolidada em torno do pacto da vinculação orçamentária entre os níveis da federação (governo central, estados e municípios). Com base nos indicadores do Sistema de Informação sobre Orçamento Público de Saúde (Siops)/DataSUS/Ministério da Saúde, descrevem-se o Índice de Vinculação Orçamentária e a resiliência da amostra de 87 municípios com elevada disponibilidade orçamentária. Expõe-se que o governo central retirou o apoio à expansão das despesas com ASPS, estabilizando a alocação de seus recursos por meio do veto à vinculação orçamentária. A mudança de orientação federal transferiu o ônus da expansão do financiamento aos governos municipais e estaduais nas últimas décadas. Conclui-se que a estabilização das despesas federais foi compensada pelo crescimento da vinculação do orçamento municipal com as ASPS. Durante o primeiro ciclo da pandemia da Covid-19, a vinculação orçamentária foi crucial para a expansão do financiamento das ASPS na maioria dos municípios da amostra, possibilitando a condição resiliente.

The resilience of large Brazilian cities and the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT This paper aimed to describe the resilience of the Federal Government’s fund of Public Health Actions and Services (ASPS) in Brazil during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. It shows that the development of the contemporary public health sector was based on cooperative federalism. In this context, municipal participation in financing was consolidated around the constitutional agreement of budget binding between the levels of the Brazilian federation (Central Government, states, and municipalities). The Budget Binding Index (BBI) and the resilience of the sample of 87 municipalities with a high budget are described from the Public Health Budget Information System (SIOPS) indicators, available at DataSUS/Ministry of Health. The paper shows that the central government withdrew its support for increased ASPS expenditure in the last decade, stabilizing the allocation of its resources through the veto on budget binding. The change in federal orientation shifted the burden of expanding financing to municipal and state governments. The paper concludes that the increase in municipal expenditures offset the stabilization of federal expenditures. Budget binding was crucial to the resilience of ASPS funding in most municipalities in the sample during the first cycle of the COVID-19 pandemic.