Thread: Health Care in Brazil

Does anyone know if Brazil provides government sponsored health care?
If not what are the expenses involved in obtaining medical insurance in Brazil?
Is it out of control like here in the USA? Thanks for any information you can provide!

There is a national policy in Brazil that imposes Health Care as responsibility of the government. Like any other 1st World Countries, permanent residents are given free access to health care services given that they are paying their taxes. I can't answer you on your query about the expenses.. I hope i helped you a bit..

the quality of the public healthcare depends on your location i guess.
in são paulo it´s pretty good.

basicly you have to wait a bit until someone is taking care of you because there are usually alot of people waiting for help. but that is normal. in my homecountry (germany) i also have to wait.
the last time when i was ill (flu) i went to the public hospital at night (around 4:00am). i was first in line! they also gave me a Cartão Saúde SUS (Sistema único de Saúde).

the public healthcare is free. for your medicin you have to pay. usually there are alot of generics at good prices avalible.

sure, the private healthcare is not for free. you can do a plano de saude. this is a private healthinsurance. there are different companys and different levels of services.

ps
all doctors i met where fluent in english.

Brazil
The constitution of 1988 and the Organic Health Law (Lei Orgânica de Saúde) of 1990 universalized access to medical care, unified the public health system supported by the Ministry of Health and the National Institute for Medical Assistance and Social Security (Instituto Nacional de Assistência Médica da Previdência Social--INAMPS), and decentralized the management and organization of health services from the federal to the state and, especially, municipal level. Between 1985 and 1990, for example, the proportion of program funds managed by municipalities increased from 10 to 15 percent and by states from 23 to 33 percent. The sweeping health reforms that were initiated in the 1980s attempted to extend coverage to those outside the social security system.

The constitution grants all Brazilian citizens the right to procure free medical assistance from public as well as private providers reimbursed by the government. While the public domain oversees basic and preventive health care, the private nonprofit and for-profit health care sector delivers the bulk of medical services, including government-subsidized inpatient care (that is, private facilities owned 71 percent of hospital beds designated for government-funded health care in 1993). This publicly financed, privately provided health system continues to intensify its focus on high-cost curative care, driving hospital costs up by 70 percent during the 1980s.

Therapeutic treatment in hospitals tends to dominate funding at the expense of health promotion and disease prevention programs. Hospital-based assistance expanded from 44 percent (1985) to 77 percent (1990) of municipal health spending, while expenses for primary care decreased from 35 to 3 percent. Not only have basic and preventive health services for the entire population diminished, but the public health system also subsidizes expensive, high-technology medical procedures that consume 30 to 40 percent of health resources and often end up being used to attend affluent segments of the population. Despite an augmentation in hospital coverage, discrepancies in access and quality of health care among the five regions characterize the Single Health System (Sistema Único de Saúde--SUS); medical consultations average 1.3 per capita in the Northeast versus 2.3 in the Southeast.

Although states and municipalities rapidly acquired more responsibility in administering health funds and facilities, the federal government retained the role of financing public health outlays. As stipulated by the 1988 constitution, government subsidies for health services are derived from the social security budget, which is predominantly based on earmarked taxes and contributions from employee payroll and business profits. The federal government consistently underwrote over three-quarters of all public spending on health in the 1980s, a sizable portion of which remunerated private medical charges. The percentage of total central government spending on health in 1990 was 6.7. Public health expenditures as a share of gross domestic product (GDP--see Glossary) in 1990 ranged from 2.1 to 3.1 percent, close to half of the total health expenditures of 5.8 percent.

Private sources finance the other half of total health expenditures. Perceptions of inefficiency in the government reimbursement schedule and deterioration in service quality of the public health system spurred a rapid growth in the private financing of health care during the 1980s, particularly in well-developed cities of the Southeast. The private sector covers 32 million citizens (roughly 20 percent of the Brazilian population) and consists of several hundred firms offering four principal types of medical plans: private health insurance, prepaid group practice, medical cooperatives, and company health plans. The group medical plans rank Brazil as the largest health maintenance organization (HMO) provider in Latin America; HMOs both finance and provide health care, but limit coverage to low-cost procedures and drive the burden of treating high-risk individuals to the publicly funded health system

In Brazil there is a Government Programa named S.U.S. (Sistema Único de Saúde), which Mr. Barak Obama, the President of U.S.A., would like to copy and implant in U.S.A.

The program is cheaper than paying Private Health Plans, and if a Brazilian wants to take part of the program, he has to contribute with monthly payments to the Social Previdence Fund.

Every registered worker in Brazil (registered according to the labor laws) can use the S.U.S. services by contributing with monthly payments which will also make part of his retiring in the future.

the S.U.S policy is great. yes USA is now going to apply it in their country. in Brazil you just need to be certified by the labor court. its not a problem just submit your paper of your legal working documents and get the certificate. then you can apply for the S.U.S policy.
you will get quality health care in your whole life at a very cheap rate and after your retirement you will get the money! its awesome

Heath insurance it's something very expensive in Brazil but it's worth ig you want to avoid the long queues and waiting hours in the SUS... Unimed is a good plan but can cost you more than 150USD per month. The best thing is to to work for a company which provides healthy insurance or help to pay part of the costs. If you are working for the government you are lucky, many places offer healthy insurance a litte bit cheaper in the package

Thank you everyone for your insightful answers to my questions! Unfortunately here in the United States
it appears that the health care plan is going to be revoked. Oh well, typical politics here I guess.

If you come to Brazil it is best to get attended in a private hospital that go through the SUS. You will wait very long to be attended- at times over five hours and many doctors see it as more of a quantity thing that a quality type of service. The more people the attend the better for them-- but they are not quite worried about the quality of the service

one of the best health care is in brazil... they have a good hospital and doctors..

There is a very helpful user friendly graphic map that locates doctors and hospitals in Brazil and South America located here: Hospitals, Doctors and Health Practitioners in Salvador, Brazil

There are regions or cities in Brazil that the SUS from Government works very well, but there are other regions that doesn´t work very well, due to the low salaries paid to the doctors.

Private health care plans are very good, but they are very expensive for Brazilians.

At the rate Brazil is growing, some of the major issues in terms of government health services would be the underfunded and extremely ineffective way in which it is organized. Does anyone have any comments on this subject?

Yes, I agree to Danno123, S.U.S. is an excellent Health Plan that can works very well in USA, but in Brazil it faces many problems due to the extremely Government ineffectiveness. Doctors earn bad salaries, for example.

Public medical care is guaranted by law in Brazil, but reality is somewhat different, depending on the region. Some hospitals are so crowded that it is difficult to get care. We can say we have 2 countries, Brazil in South and Southeast region has better conditions than other regions and public medical care there is better. The middle and high class use the private medical care assistance. Nowadays it is the way to have access to quality in health assistance. If you plan to come it is better to buy a medical insurance.

Did you know that right now in Brazil no one benefits more than the poor, and physicians are given incentives and paid up to three times more to work in the poorest areas of Brazil.

Because of this, infant mortality is down and life expectancy is up, but there are drawbacks. Offering so much has put a strain on the health system. Most of Brazil’s hospitals are considered substandard, with long waits for procedures.

I'm so happy to know this. Thanks for the post. At least poor people are prioritized. CHEERS!****

The long lines of waiting for a service does not allow me to say that the poor have good health care. Insufficient beds and equipment. We see every day on TV, reports on how patients are in hospital corridors in the northern states and northeastern Brazil.

Is really what Obama wants the same as what Brazil offers? I don't think so. Obama wants all Americans to pay private insurance companies money - and then the private insurance companies pay for the medical bills. There is always a private medical insurance company involved. But, a government subsidy is permitted if you are poor. So, instead of paying $200 USD per month as a poor person, you'd pay $50 USD per month (more or less, depending upon your yearly wage). He is keeping money flowing to insurance companies. The government is not paying doctors directly for services - or having doctors work for the government. The BAD thing about this is that private insurance companies can continue to raise their prices. It would have been MUCH better if Obama let the government have MORE control over healthcare costs. I don't see how his plan will reduce the overall cost of healthcare in the USA. Insurance companies only get richer. I dont' see this as similar to Brazil.

RioFriend, what do you say is serious, we have a lot to think when it comes to health services. In Brazil we have the SUS, free medical care for people, most used by poor population. "Free" is a way to say, because we pay taxes to cover its costs. Besides we continue to have private consultations, who wants and can pay the doctors directly. Nowadays it becames more common, to get a fast appointment you have to pay a private consultation. And we have the private medical insurance, intermediating the doctors and hospitals services and the public. How much you are aging, more you pay and this is attrocious. Though it is the only way to have a guaranted attention if you need a specialist doctor and to be in a hospital in a better room, with only one more person sharing it.