Secret finances will seize R$ 10 billion of well being finances in 2023

The amount is the minimum that the government has, by constitutional obligation, to allocate to the area in the Budget

The money destined to public health actions and services in the 2023 Budget it can be even smaller with the capture of appeal by rapporteur parliamentary amendments. calls from RP-9these amendments do not respect division and transparency criteria and sustain the call secret budgetrevealed by Estadão.

The draft Budget should provide for approx. BRL 10 billion of amendments of rapporteur to compose the health floor, the minimum that the government has, by constitutional obligation, to allocate to the area in the Budget. This is what Budget technicians call a solution “inside” the health floor.

Until 2022, the rapporteur’s amendments worked, to a large extent, as an additional resource “above” the health floor. The space in the Budget for the rapporteur’s amendments was opened by the Congress. That is, the draft Budget could be sent without the forecast of these amendments. Now, for 2023, the Executive already foresees the space for the rapporteur’s amendments in the budget project.

At the 2022 Budgetthe mandatory minimum for health was BRL 139.8 billion. In the end, with the amendments of the rapporteur above the floor and other additions destined to the area, it totaled R$ 150.5 billion. In 2023, the estimate is that the health budget will be R$ 149.3 billion, already including the R$ 10 billion amendment of the rapporteur within the floor.

The assessment is that this capture of the health budget by the amendments of an additional rapporteur tends to put even more pressure on the Unified Health System (SUS) in a scenario where the demands of the sector are increasing: lack of various supplies, such as the covid-19 vaccine for children, serum, contrast and other items. Another source of additional pressure on the SUS for 2023 is that states and municipalities will have to implement the nursing floor. With the budget reduction, transfers to governors and mayors can also be reduced.

“With the current situation, the SUS situation tends to worsen in 2023: pressures are increasing, for example, with an increase in the queue for surgeries, while resources may fall and still tend to be captured by the secret budget”, he says. Bruno Morettilegislative advisor to the Senate and specialist in public budget. According to him, the data point to the absolute lack of technical criteria in the transfers of Health to amendments by the rapporteur, which do not meet the growing needs of the area.

The president Bolsonaro maintained in the Budget Guidelines Law (LDO) of 2023 approved by the Congress, article that determines that the rapporteur’s amendments will already be foreseen in the contingency reserve of the budget project, in the amount resulting from the sum of the individual and tax bench amendments. At the same time, Bolsonaro vetoed an article that established that at most half of the reserve for rapporteur amendments could be used to meet constitutional minimums, such as health. O general value of the rapporteur’s amendments must be between BRL 18 billion and BRL 19 billion in 2023.

According to technicians heard by the Estadão, the veto opened the way for the economic team to use the health floor to accommodate the rapporteur’s amendments to the Budget. They call attention that there is a risk that the resources destined for health in 2023 will remain at a lower level than the current budget for 2022, as they must be provided for in the floor defined by the spending ceiling.

In practice, this composition with the rapporteur’s amendments should help the economic team to close the puzzle of the draft Budget 2023, which needs to be sent by the end of the month, to accommodate more spending in other areas that were created. This is the design being considered by the government so far.

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