This article seeks to analyze the relationship between fiscal tax benefits for health expenditures and private health care demand. We seek to identify conflicts and agreements over the issue, particularly regarding proposals for change in the regulatory framework. In order to accomplish this we analyze documents and carry out semi-structured interviews with representatives of pertinent national organizations of social subjects. We are able to verify that the debate has reached important arenas for the definition of health policies, but proposals for change have not become viable. Our interviews suggest a convergence with international econometric studies on the non-elasticity of demand for family health care, while this is less true regarding firms. This also suggests that the issue should be placed within a broader context with regard to equity in financing, not focusing in an isolated manner on the specific matter of the elimination of this subsidy which would increase the onus of health care costs within the family budget and family tax burdens without automatically generating a compensatory allocation of public resources for the sector.
tax expenditures; private health expenditures; public-private relations in health; political economy of health; health policies in Brazil
