The article analyses the capacity to distribute resources for health services, established by the policy of Municipalização Solidária da Saúde (MSS), created by the Health Department of the State of Rio Grande do Sul (SES/RS). The objective of this policy is to allocate resources to local level using a formula that would consider the equity criteria (the population and the Human Development Index - HDI), the period analyzed is the year of 2001. If the formula were adopted, a displacement of financial resources for cities with smaller population would be verified. In the usual way of financing health in Brazil (per capita or production) the resources would be driven to the cities with bigger population. To evaluate if the MSS policy benefits the cities in a worse social and economical condition, the HDI was used. In the State of the Rio Grande do Sul this index varies only from medium to high. There is no city with the low level of this indicator. Notwithstanding, the formula showed a great capacity to benefit cities in worse social and economical condition. Using the formula, half of the resources would go for 34% of the resident population in the cities with the lower HDI.
Equity; Public health; Health economics; Health financing; Resources distribution
