The Accessible Health Insurance Bill: Harm to beneficiaries and the public system

Abstract

The present work analyzed, from the economic perspective of the realization of the right to health, the Accessible Health Insurance Bill (PL No. 7,419/2006), attached to the general project of reform of Law No. 9,656/1998, developed by the Ministry of Health in 2016 and currently being processed in the Chamber of Deputies. For this, the official documents of the proposal were analyzed in light of its economic justifications and the scope of access to services. The main guidelines of the project, highlighting the new models of plans, show the creation of bureaucratic obstacles to the performance of procedures, in addition to the flexibility of the coverage list of the plans according to the local infrastructure, in disagreement with the minimum coverage in the current regulation. The proposal economically favors the health insurance companies by establishing the 50% coparticipation and adjustment according to the cost table. Moreover, in practice, the project presents a double loss: to the beneficiary, who bears plan costs and, at the moment of greatest need, emergency procedures or of greater complexity, because he is not protected by the coverage; and to the public system, which must supply the deficiencies of private coverage, which, at a time of greater demand and limited resources, can lead to overload.