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The Federal Government guaranteed an additional transfer of R$ 2 billion to 3,288 non-profit private entities in 1,700 municipalities. It is through these institutions that a large part of the population has access to medium and high complexity care, such as surgeries and exams. The announcement was made by the President of the Republic, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and by the Minister of Health, Nísia Trindade, this Thursday (20) at the Planalto Palace, in Brasília (DF).

 

Non-profit charitable entities are an integral and fundamental part of the SUS, in addition to being essential for governments, in a tripartite manner, to guarantee universal access to health. Currently, 60% of high-complexity consultations and hospitalizations through the SUS are carried out by philanthropic entities. These institutions, throughout history, have become references in medium and high complexity, in addition to many being traditional teaching hospitals for training doctors and other health professionals.

 

Nísia Trindade, in her speech, reinforced that it is essential to guarantee the sustainability of the SUS, a heritage of Brazilian society. "SUS is not a program of the Ministry of Health. It is a state policy and our government has been working to guarantee the sustainability of this system, which is the most inclusive social policy that Brazil has achieved so far. It is the sector that can contribute to the development of sustainable actions, as we have discussed in relation to reducing our vulnerability to vaccines, medicines, inputs, everything that is fundamental for the health care of our population. The SUS has many arms and, one of them , is the philanthropic sector", he declared.

 

In recent years, philanthropic entities have faced a financial crisis, closure of services and a decrease in attendance, which puts assistance to the population in various regions of the country at risk. Of the total investment announced by the Federal Government, more than R$ 475.8 million have already been transferred, related to the remaining balances in the health funds of the states, Federal District and municipalities. To ensure the completion of balances in the amount of R$ 2 billion, the new ordinance, signed this Thursday (20), establishes the resource of R$ 1.5 billion in a single installment.

 

The Vice President of the Republic, Geraldo Alckmin, maintained that the SUS is one of the best systems in the world, with universality, equity and completeness. "Lula, you were one of those who built the SUS, a constituent federal deputy, and there the Brazilian Social Security and the Unified Health System were approved. It ranges from vaccines to heart transplants. During the election campaign, I went to represent the president Lula at the Congress of Santas Casas and there, on his behalf, I spoke about the extraordinary work that is done, with the commitment to be a partner, helping philanthropic organizations, especially in their financing, which is the great difficulty", he defended.

 

UNDERSTAND - The transfer to philanthropic entities was defined by Complementary Law 197, of 2022, which established that the remaining financial balances, from transfers from the Ministry of Health in the open accounts of the states, Federal District and municipalities, before January 1, 2018, were applied to the cost of services provided by non-profit private entities that complement the SUS, up to a value of R$ 2 billion. However, the ordinance published in December 2022, by the previous management, defined criteria that made it difficult for states and municipalities to access amounts, such as the requirement for a Debt Clearance Certificate, in addition to establishing a short deadline for proving the criteria.

 

To ensure that the transfer reaches philanthropic entities, the current management of the Ministry of Health revoked the old ordinance and published a new document, on February 7, 2023, for immediate transfer to managers and without the requirement and criteria that made the transfer last ordinance of difficult execution. The new ordinance defines the maximum amount allocated to each philanthropic entity, considering the total proportion of institutions registered in the databases of the Outpatient and Hospital Information Systems, between 2019 and 2021.