Eficiência dos gastos públicos em saúde durante a pandemia da covid-19: um estudo das unidades federativas do Brasil

Abstract

The objective of this study is to measure the relative technical efficiency of public spending on health in the federative units of Brazil, in the years 2020 and 2021, which correspond to the first and second year of the covid-19 pandemic in the country, given the importance of optimization financial resources to meet the different socioeconomic realities of the population. For that, a descriptive, documentary and quantitative research was carried out, with the application of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), CCR model, oriented towards output, to identify the efficient units in each period. Per capita expenditure on health was used as an input and as an output the number of tests, beds, people recovered, inverse of deaths, inverse of hospitalizations, doctors and vaccines per thousand inhabitants. The results showed that none of the units in the Northeast and Center-West obtained efficiency scores equal to 1 in the analyzed periods. In 2020, Acre, Rio Grande do Sul and São Paulo were efficient, while in 2021, Acre, Minas Gerais, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Tocantins were efficient in the application of resources. It can be seen that, among the efficient units, only two (Acre and São Paulo) were efficient in both years, 2020 and 2021, and the Federal District was the most inefficient unit in both years Through the analysis, it was possible to infer that a higher per capita expenditure on health does not necessarily result in efficiency, as well as a lower expenditure does not guarantee efficient services.