Descentralização e uniformidade nacional na provisão dos serviços de saúde: o caso do Brasil

Abstract

In this paper we evaluate to what extent territorial inequalities affect capacity and local conditions for provision of services in a national public policy with decentralized implementation. Analyzing the Brazilian health policy, in which municipalities are responsible for the provision of services, their methodological strategy was directed to a cross-sectional study of local budgets in the formation of revenues and expenses considering population size and regional location of municipalities. In the end, despite the equalizer character transfers conditional federal, we identify asymmetries between capacity and local conditions which may jeopardize the equal access to health services, defined in the Brazilian Constitution.