Social Determinants, Conditions and Performance of Health Services in Latin American Countries, Portugal and Spain.

Comparison can be an important resource for identifying trends or interventions that improve the quality of health services. Although Portugal and Spain have accumulated important knowledge in primary health care-PHC driven national systems, the Ibero-American countries have not been object of comparative studies. This paper presents an assessment using an analytical dashboard created by the Ibero-American Observatory on Policies and Health Systems.

The effects of Constitutional Amendment 29 on the regional allocation of public funds for the National Health Service in Brazil.

This article analyzes the effects of Constitutional Amendment 29 in financing the Brazilian National Health Service, SUS, between 2000 and 2010. The aim was to analyze how the resources that were allocated by the three spheres of government were used on a general basis and in specific regions. Analysis was also conducted on the possible repercussions of the Amendment in the allocation of finances for SUS.

[Unmet health care needs in Brazil: an investigation about the reasons for not seeking health care].

Herein, unmet health care needs, defined by the authors as the situation when an individual feels the need but does not seek healthcare, are studied from the data of the health questionnaires of the 1998, 2003 and 2008 rounds of the National Household Sampling Survey (Pnad). From 1998 to 2008, the percentage of the population with healthcare needs during the two weeks prior to the interview did not change, remaining at around 17%, whilst the share with unmet healthcare needs fell from 3.5% to 2.

Country response to HIV/AIDS: national health accounts on HIV/AIDS in Brazil, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Uruguay.

National expenditures on HIV/AIDS were estimated as summary indicators to assess the country's response to HIV/AIDS. The methodology is based on a matrix system describing the level and flow of health expenditures on HIV/AIDS: an adaptation of the National Health Accounts methods. The expenditures were classified by source (public, private, international), by the use of funds (prevention, care), by object, and by type of provider institution.

[Delphi Study: social actors and trends in the Brazilian health care system].

This article summarizes the Final Report published by the Instituto de Pesquisa Econ mica Aplicada, containing the results of the Delphi Study conducted in 2000 with the objective of identifying the main health trends in Brazil in the first decade of the 21st century, according to opinion-makers selected from various social segments most directly involved in issues in their respective sectors. A total of 138 panelists were interviewed, of whom 105 (76.1%) participated in both stages of the study (1st and 2nd questionnaires).