HEALTH SECTOR IN BRAZIL: AN ANALYSIS OF COINCIDENCE IN ECONOMIC CONCENTRATION OPERATIONS

Abstract

The Brazilian health system involves the performance of both the public and private sectors, resulting in a series of phenomena that result from the relations between companies and the State. This research aims to analyze the actions of influence strategy that are necessary and sufficient for the unrestricted approval of acts of economic concentration submitted to CADE by hospitals and health plans. The analysis was carried out through documentary research in processes available on CADE's website and data from the Transparency Portal and the Superior Electoral Court. 87 acts of economic concentration were examined between 2014 and 2019. Using the R program for coincidence analysis (CNA), it was found that the absence of an Economic Group or the presence of Experience with an Act of Economic Concentration or the Occupation of Public Office are necessary and sufficient factors for approval without restrictions. From this research, it is clear that the commodification of health, favored by the unrestricted approval of these operations, threatens the proposal of a health system based on the principles of universality, equity and integrality. This can lead to greater inequality of access and concentration of power in the sector, with economic groups creating increasingly narrow and polarized beneficiary portfolios.