This work discusses some of the issues related to the funding of the Brazilian National Health Service (SUS). In the first part of the paper, Ruben de Mattos advocates the creation of devices to guarantee a progressive increase in the public health budget. In the debater's view, the greatest challenge facing the government is the development - and the maintenance - of a system that can de facto guarantee universal and equalitarian access. Mattos also emphasizes the importance of the federal government's transfers of funds to local governments since the latter are seen as instrumental in the attempts to reduce inequality between regions and to encourage policies that will contribute to the SUS' consolidation. In the second part, Nilson do Rosário affirms that the 1990's fiscal adjustment, a consequence of the monetary stabilization policy, reduced the government's funding capacity with regard to health; due to the ensuing increase in social inequality, this had a series of adverse effects. Next, Mr. Rosário explains how the health sector responded to the demands for macroeconomic adjustment of public expenditure by means of substitutive strategies. It was in this context that the Family Health Programme (PSF) expanded rapidly, becoming a strategic item in the agenda for the expansion of basic outpatient care in this country.
funding of the Brazilian National Health Service; public expenditure on health; Family Health Programme (PSF)
