Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff announced that Brazil will use the experience of home care projects in the United States for its own similar program. One of the objectives of home care delivery programs is to alleviate demand for hospitalizations.
“The government will finance the treatment of the sick at home where the same care available in hospitals will be provided,” said the president. “In many cases an ill person that would be hospitalized can be taken care of at home if there is someone to provide the necessary care. The government program will ensure that that can happen,” said the president.
The Unified Health System (Sistema Único de Saúde – SUS) has already published new norms for the operation of home care and set aside US$ 36.5 million for it.
In a speech for the launch of the program, Dilma explained that policy in the area of health was to increase the number of doctors in the country, mainly in areas outside large cities.
“We have set up a partnership between the ministries of Health and Education to expand the number of graduates from medical schools, especially in rural areas,” declared the president.
Economic Crisis
While speaking at an award ceremony for the best companies in Brazil, sponsored by the magazine, Isto É Dinheiro, the president of the Central Bank, Alexandre Tombini, declared that, “Brazil has done its homework and is ready to deal with the world economic crisis. At the Central Bank and in the government, we have put in place broad and consistent measures to bring inflation back under control,” declared Tombini, adding that inflation will be within the government target in 2012 (4.5%, plus or minus two percentage points).
According to Tombini, in spite of some criticism, measures by the bank and the government have “… created a safety cushion at the moment when it is possible that the crisis may get worse.” Tombini called the response by Brazil a “response of quality during a period of great challenges in the world economy.”
The president of the Central Bank went on to say, “The important thing right now is to maintain the fiscal rigor that has helped us keep inflation under control and continue to do the work at the Central Bank that has distinguished the Brazilian economy from other economies.”
In a recorded message presented at the event, minister of Finance, Guido Mantega, seconded Tombini: “Brazil is well prepared to deal with problems that may come our way from the more advanced economies.
“We will not permit the foreign crisis to topple our economy, reduce jobs in Brazil or threaten all that we have built up over the years through enormous effort. The government is prepared to take whatever measures are necessary to maintain the investment and credit quality of Brazil and to protect jobs here.”
Brazilian minister of Planning, Miriam Belchior, says that the international economic crisis that affects the US and some countries in Europe will not mean alterations in planned investments in the Accelerated Growth Program (PAC). Belchior declared that the government does not intend to make changes in decisions already made for PAC spending, “under any circumstances.”
The PAC is the Brazilian government’s showcase development program that began during the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva administration. The second stage, which continues under Dilma Rousseff, and runs to 2014, has a budget of R$ 955 billion, explained Belchior.
“These are fundamental investments. Among other things, they will help us ward off problems from the international economic crisis,” said Belchior, as she assured an audience at a construction conference in São Paulo that planned 2011 outlays for the low-income housing program (Minha Casa, Minha Vida – My Home, My Life) of 30 billion reais would occur.
Belchior declared that even though the PAC would move ahead unchanged the government was well aware of what was going on in the rest of the world. “We are concerned, but well prepared to deal with the situation, just as we did in 2008,” the minister said, referring to the US mortgage bubble of 2008.
“We are closely following events on the international scene in order to determine whether or not other measures will be necessary.”
