Bolsonaro government blocks another R$ 1.6 billion from the health budget

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The Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government decided to block another R$ 1.65 billion from the Ministry of Health budget. Last Friday (25), the Economy sent the portfolio commanded by Marcelo Queiroga to choose which areas will be affected.

Members of Health fear that the measure will make it even more difficult to implement public policies by the end of this year. The order is to cut funds from discretionary expenses, that is, the resources used in programs such as Farmácia Popular, for the qualification of beds and the purchase of medicines and supplies.

Health has not yet said which actions will be cut. The transition team of the president-elect, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), has said that the scenario is one of chaos in health due to lack of funds.

When contacted, the Ministries of Economy and Health did not comment on the blockade.

Last week, the government announced the blocking of over R$5.7 billion from the ministries’ 2022 budget to avoid exceeding the spending ceiling. The cut in Health is the result of this decision.

Education also froze resources from universities and federal institutes this week.

In a letter sent to Health, the Federal Budget Secretary, Ariosto Culau said that the blocked amounts can be canceled to meet mandatory expenses, such as personnel expenses, or “discretionary primary expenses considered unavoidable”.

The government had already stopped R$ 2.23 billion from Health. In other words, the total cut in this type of budget amounts to approximately R$ 3.8 billion.

Ministry technicians say that the amount that still remains from the parliamentary amendments is already blocked and that the new cut will end up being made on discretionary expenses for ministry programs.

The Economy asked Health to indicate by this Tuesday (29) which areas should be affected. Members of the ministry, however, told the Sheet who still don’t know which actions will lose resources.

Paulo Guedes’ portfolio also told Health to reassess the need to execute expenses by the end of the year, to adapt “to the reduction in the allocation of their budgets, seeking to mitigate the effects of these adjustments in carrying out public policies under their supervision”.

“If necessary, there is the possibility of adjustments in the schedules, in order to minimize the effects of the blockages, as long as the bodies request budget changes with the offer of compensatory appropriations within the scope of their schedules”, the letter signed by Culau also states.

In total, the Bolsonaro government ordered the blocking of about R$ 15.4 billion from ministries this year to avoid breaking the spending ceiling.

The measure could impose a blackout in the public machine just over a month before the end of the current president’s term – like the issue of passports, already suspended by the Federal Police due to lack of funds.

The spending ceiling is the rule that limits the growth of expenses to inflation variation. Blocking resources is mandatory for the government.

The president-elect, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), is betting on the approval of the Transition PEC to exclude expenses with the Bolsa Família program from the spending ceiling and free up space for other government programs, such as in the area of ​​Health.

The health working group in the transitional government said last week that there is a scenario of chaos in the country’s health. One of the main transition demands is to reinforce the Health budget by R$ 22.7 billion in 2023 to guarantee the minimum functioning of public services.

Such as Sheet As shown, the Jair Bolsonaro government (PL) sent the Budget proposal for 2023 with a forecast cut of 42% in the discretionary funds of the Ministry of Health, used in the purchase of materials, equipment and for investments.

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