The performance of the cities in the Health Pact in the scope of the federative relations of the Brazilian National Health System (SUS)

Abstract

This study evaluates the results of the Health Pact, which seeks to regulate the SUS’s federative relations, regarding the achievement of the goals and the compliance with the agreements made by the federated entities considering national priorities and the actual performance of the cities in comparative terms. Some indicators of the Health Pact were selected for the period of 2007-2011 and sought to answer the following questions: (1) Have the cities fulfilled what was agreed? How did this evolve in the period? (2) The effective performance of the cities has positively improved during the period? (3) What is the degree of inequality between cities in terms of performance? (4) Are the results associated with structural factors exogenous or endogenous to the health sector? Data from Datasus and Sispacto were used. Measures were developed to assess the degree of compliance with the agreed targets, to evaluate the actual performance of the cities and the degree of inequality between them. Regression models sought to gauge the influence of structural factors on this performance. Results show that the pact has not extended the cooperation between federated entities; there were positive developments in the achieving the goals, particularly in the indicators with punitive mechanisms; the performance varies between indicators and is mainly associated with the availability of financial resources.