Understand the situation of municipalities with the veto that limited health resources overturned

With the overturn of the veto that set a limit for resources allocated to the Unified Health System (SUS), through parliamentary amendments to the host municipalities of public consortia, the population will benefit. The opinion is from economist Aurélio Trancoso. For him, the measure will allow the transfers to reach, mainly, smaller municipalities, which currently have difficulties investing in the sector due to lack of resources.

“Municipalities can receive more money now through parliamentary amendments so that health can improve. I think it is a great solution for municipalities that suffer a lot in the health sector. The health sector is very deficient in Brazil, mainly related to the SUS. We see that the government invests very little and the population suffers a lot as a result. So I think this overturning of the veto was very interesting”, he says.

Last Tuesday (28), the National Congress overturned a series of presidential vetoes to the Budget Guidelines Law (LDO — Law 14,791, of 2024) this year. Among them was the device that limited the fixed transfer of resources allocated to the Unified Health System (SUS) through parliamentary amendments.

According to budget consultant César Lima, it means that, today, if the municipalities together have a ceiling of 10 million, the consortium will have another ceiling of 5 million separate from the municipalities’ ceiling.

“The municipalities will have an increase, so to speak, in the margin for using resources, arising from parliamentary amendments, to finance these public consortia, which are when two or more municipalities come together to create, for example, a regional hospital, to serve a population in a specific region independent of the municipality. So this is very positive for the municipal agenda”, he analyzes.

Before the veto

Prior to the veto, resources arising from parliamentary amendments for the health consortium were subject to the limits established for transfers to the consortium’s host municipalities – where the municipal administration is located. According to the Municipal Confederation of Municipalities (CNM), the relaxation of limits for the host municipality of consortia, in relation to health amendment resources, was included in LDO 2020 and remained until 2022 without question.

However, the rule, provided for by the amendment text to the Budget Guidelines Law for 2023 (LDO 2023), received a presidential veto. Under analysis in the National Congress, the veto was maintained by parliamentarians in a session on December 15th.

In the opinion of budget economist Roberto Piscitelli, parliamentary amendments increase the bargaining power and influence of parliamentarians with the municipalities that could benefit from these amendments.

“These parliamentary amendments already represent more than 50 billion, it is a very important slice of the budget. So this is yet another advance, so to speak, in what could be considered the prerogative of the Legislature, which was assigned to have a greater role in budgetary matters, increase influence in relation to the allocation of resources, increase the volume of resources that are transferred to municipalities through parliamentary amendments”, he highlights.

CNM and the veto

For the National Confederation of Municipalities (CNM), the measure will be beneficial for all municipalities. The entity worked with parliamentarians to overturn this veto of Law 14,791/2024 on Budgetary Guidelines (LDO). The CNM understands that the device harmed the population of all regions of the consortium.

Thus, the amendments intended for this type of consortium will not consume the financial limit of temporary increase of the host municipality and the other members will not be harmed if they are also benefited with resources resulting from parliamentary amendments.

In total, there are more than 300 public health consortia and over 4,200 municipalities linked to them, in all states, according to data from the CNM.