An analysis of equity in Brazilian health system financing.

Health care in Brazil is financed from many sources--taxes on income, real property, sales of goods and services, and financial transactions; private insurance purchased by households and firms; and out-of-pocket payments by households. Data on household budgets and tax revenues allow the burden of each source except firms' insurance purchases for their employees to be allocated across deciles of adjusted per capita household income, indicating the progressivity or regressivity of each kind of payment. Overall, financing is approximately neutral, with progressive public finance offsetting regressive payments. This last form of finance pushes some households into poverty.