Brazil's Healthcare System: Challenges and Reforms

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Country profile
BRAZIL
Brazil is the substantially large country of South America and is the fifth hefty nation in the world. Official name of
Brazil is the Federal Republic of Brazil. The form of government over here is federal republic. The place comprises
of around 204,846,892 populations in it (Breda et al., 2018). The capital of Brazil is Brasilia. The official language
which is spoken here is Portuguese. The currency used here is Real. The area covered by the whole country under
it is 3,286,470 square miles or8, 511,965 square kilometers. The geographical boundaries and depths comprises
of some major mountain ranges and major rivers respectively. The mountain ranges are Serra Do Mar and Serra
Do Esphanco. The rivers are Amazon, Sao Francisco, Parana and Tocantins. Brazil forms a triangular structure on
the Eastern side of the continent. It is connected with every other country of South America except Ecuador and
Chile (Breda et al., 2018).

AT A GLANCE
HISTORY
Earlier the scientists thought that Brazil was occupied by the Asian people about 10,000 years ago. But newer
evidences say that there were people who resided there 32,000 years back too. Some people contradicting say
that they may have arrived from the Pacific islands. Brazil was explored by the explorations done by Europe in the
15th century by the people of Portugal and Spain (Bremmer., 2014). When the residents of Europe arrived Brazil
they found this place inhabited by some people who were Amerindian in origin, today only a few tribes are
present and that too in the remotest places of the country. The first colony of Brazil was setup by the Portuguese
people where they planted sugarcane fields and also sent gold and diamonds to Europe (Bremmer., 2014). The
country of Brazil had many gold reserves which on exploration brought a large number of people from the nearby
coastlines and also from Europe to the interiors of the country.
The history also states that the Brazilians tried to remove the Portuguese rulers from their country in1789 but
then the revolution was cooled down soon and the demand for independence again rose years later and then
after a lot more struggle Brazil was declared a sovereign nation in 1822. Some rulers of Portugal origin ruled over
Brazilians till 1888 but then the military and the landlords removed them out of their country and became a
Federal Republic.
CULTURE

Brazilian people are said to be plunged from three traditional races namely the Amerindians, Europeans and the
Africans. In the early 19th century people from Europe, japan and Middle East migrated here and added upon to
the mixture. Due to this reason there is a huge cultural diversity seen here and the culture here is rich mainly in
music, religious and culinary things.
Due to this reason people with different places and geographical boundaries entered Brazil and then intermixed
with the indigenous people and then evolved into numerous health problems (Turner et al., 2010).
ABOUT THE PEOPLE
The people of Brazil are mainly crazy for soccer and have given world some of the best players of the era. One of
them is Pele (Lemaître et al., 2012). Brazil has been the winner of soccer world cup finals for five times which is
still not beatable by any other country.
GOVERNMENT
Brazil is a Federal Republic form of government where there is a President, a National Congress and a Judiciary.
The fight for independent democracy started from 1888 and ended recently. In the year 1985 the military rules
and laws were removed quiet and calmly and Brazil’s economy and government became fairly stable till the year
1995 (Lemaître et al., 2012).
ECONOMY
Brazil has different climates and also has a variety of soils so it can cultivate a huge heterogeneity of crops (Turner
et al., 2010). Its yearly agricultural exports include sugarcane, latex, coffee, cocoa beans, cotton, soybeans, rice

and tropical fruits. Brazil is also known for its industrialization producing aircrafts, cars, chemicals and steel
(Bremmer., 2014).
HEALTH PROBLEMS IN BRAZIL
The major health issues which people of Brazil face are Hepatitis A and B, Dengue, Chikungunya, Rabies, DTP,
Schistosomiasis and Malaria. Apart from this Brazil is surrounded by forests all around so people here maily face
problems of snake bites, bee-stings, mosquitoes, etc. the country have now started vaccinations for all the above
mentioned diseases including the yellow fever and Zika virus. Now a days due to globalization the entire work
system of Brazil has changes from manual to mechanical and so people now have become sedentary. Brazil’s
economy has also reached at higher levels due to which people over there lead lavish lives. This leads to affect
people’s lifestyle by affecting them with hypertension, back pain, neck pain, ischemic heart disease, cancer,
diabetes, respiratory infections etc (Turner et al., 2010).
HEALTHCARE DELIVERY IN BRAZIL
It is the right of every citizen living in Brazil to get appropriate access towards healthcare facilities. For this various
government and private institutes have made certain rules. The National Health Policy is administered by the
Health Minister of the country. The federation sets out the laws through which the delivery of health and related
services is provided through the Unified Health System (SUS). Primary Healthcare is the liability of the Federal
Government where all the hospitals and primary health centers are addressed (Turner et al., 2010).

The current amendments made in the provisions stated that the responsibility of the SUS is shifted to municipal
corporations with the financial and technological advancement from the federal and states government. The
main strategy is to implement primary health care in the country by bringing the Family Healthcare program
(Macinko et al., 2010). The department of disease control and prevention is mastered by the experts of the
Ministry of Public Health (Kooienga et al., 2015). The National Epidemiology Center (CENEPI) and the National
Health Foundation (FUNASA) keeps monitoring the weather and provides regular updates to the ministry of
Public Health about the health and its related issues. Epidemic if any is about to come then the government has
to get prepared with its vaccine so that the economy of the country does not deteriorate. Statistics reveal that
there are around 78%hospitals in the whole country including private and government (Kooienga et al., 2015).
With the loan of US 600 million Dollars from World Bank the government is trying to ameliorate the operational
cadre, training of human resources and will improve on to research studies. Brazil is one of the biggest markets of
the world in medicinal consumption. The total annual expenditure over medicines is high enough which costs
around 3.6% of the world’s share in it.
The emergency medical services in Brazil has started in Brazil since 2002, this includes ambulances, air
ambulances, medical team to manage road traffic accidents, obstetric cases such as delivery and its management,
etc. currently Brazil is launching its CATCH plan which states (Commission for the Advancement of Technology for
Communications and Health). The funds are provided by the WHO, ITU and other voluntary countries. The CATCH

program intends to improve its communication and technology services for the betterment of Brazil’s health
issues (Kooienga et al., 2015).
CONTRIBUTION OF GLOBAL ACTORS IN HEALTH CARE SYSTEM
The global actors such as the WHO, IMF, World Bank NGO and IGO all helped raise funds and help Brazil to
establish the stable healthcare system for the betterment of people living in the nation (Schmidt et al.,2011). The
funds also helped in investing money to build bigger infrastructures to accommodate the rising population of the
country (Schmidt et al.,2011). The international Governmental Organizations help provide the country the
technological advancements through which the time and energy of the people could be saved and more lives can
be benefitted (Lemaître et al., 2012).
The graph shown below describes the rise in the demand and quality of the healthcare services of the country.
This eventually led to an increase in the per capita income of the country as healthy individuals contributed more
effectively in the development of it (Schmidt et al.,2011). The Brazilian and Federal forms of services improved
drastically whereas the municipal and state ones were very low in the graph. This is because the people having
insurances on the schemes of government for the locals and residents of Brazil (Lemaître et al., 2012).

VISUALS AND PHOTOGRAPHS

Ancient Brazilian tribes
STAR RATINGS
Income distribution- ***

The distribution of income is seen under the GDP which shows that the Brazilian economy has had a great
downfall since 2007 (Ventura et al., 2016).
Literacy- ****
Primary education is achieved by almost 97%of the population with equal rate of girls and boys. Secondary
education is also attained by almost 73% of students (Skidmore., 2009).
Life expectancy- ****
The life expectancy has now increased to 60-70 years due to increase in the medical services.
Position of women- ***
Position of women s not still up to the mark in the society. Still there have been known cases of familial brutality
in the country and still some % of deaths occur due to it.
Freedom- ***
Freedom is provided to all the citizens to express, vote, do what they feel is good for them.
*****- excellent
****- good
***-fair
**-poor
*-appalling

IMPORTANCE OF GLOBAL GOVERNANCE IN GLOBAL HEALTH
Global heath is a major issue as now due to globalization travelling from one place to another is very convenient.
So people travel from one country to another, one continent to another and so on. Due to this every country has
some of its specifications which the individual must go through so that he/she is not taking any kind of infection
in the other country.
Similarly the government of Brazil started the medical tests of people and made them take vaccinations of some
diseases such as Schistosomiasis, dengue, Chikungunya, etc (Fausto et al., 2014). This will decrease the number of
disease spreading agents in the country and thereby will lead to the growth of the country.
Also the obstetrics sector has improved a lot due to the technological advancements and funds received from
various global actors. This resulted in decrease in the infant mortality rates, decreased abnormality and genetic
diseases also (Wachsmann et al., 2009).
The recent advancements in the emergency medical services have also helped people save their lives in road
traffic accidents. The facility of ambulances, air-ambulances and the teams of emergency healthcare professional
and technicians have led to reduce the misery of lives of people due to road traffic accidents.
Increase in the number of hospitals has proved to be beneficial for people and implementation of several policies
of insurance have also provided access towards healthcare sector (Andrade et al., 2012).

OVERALL ASSESSMENT
Brazil is the world’s fifth vast country and so it is bigger geographically and economically as well. People living
here have access to all the forest resources, he land is cultivable and the soils found here are fertile enough. Due
to these reasons the trade in Brazil has flourished immensely (Andrade et al., 2012).
The ancient Brazil was uncivilized, later; the Portugal and the Europeans invaded the land and made colonies to
stay. After the revolution of freedom the Portuguese and the Europeans were forced to leave the country and the
military rule was also demolished thereby forming a republic form of government.
The development in Brazil started after the formation of Federal government (Sieder et al., 2016). The United
Nations, World Health Organization, World Bank, etc all provided funds for the up gradation of the country. Brazil
gained attention of all these global actors due to its large rainforests and the great Amazon Basin and the Amazon
River. The economy increased healthcare facilities improved, freedom in the country was provided equally,
politics also flourished, culture and literacy rates improved due to globalization (Sieder et al., 2016).
The funds provided by the banks proved to be helpful in raising the standards of healthcare and providing better
infrastructure and research studies to the medical professionals (de Araújo et al., 2016). The insurance policies
help people gain maximum benefits from the government and thus improve the standard of living.
Advancements in technology have also aided in improving the healthcare standards. Genetic studies and
researches done are helpful in diagnosing genetically abnormal children thereby aborting them and providing
healthy and efficient population to the country.