Evolution of Medical and Hospital Costs of Private Health Care Plans in Brazil

Abstract

Brazil has achieved a national coverage rate of medical private health plans around 24.5% in June of 2017 (47,383,248). However, it has been observed a slowdown tendency of number of customers, comparing Dec / 2012 (50,409,378). This research reports the evolution of costs in Brazilian healthcare private operators (benefits manager, self-management, medical cooperative, philanthropy, health insurance specialist and group medicine) between 2003 and 2016, from the perspective of the average cost variation and of the resource and services utilization rate. The public data were obtained from websites of the Institute of Supplementary Health Studies (IESS), the National Agency of Supplemental Health (ANS) and the Institute of Applied Economic Research (IPEA). In this period, it was found that the growth of medical inflation in Brazil was higher than the general inflation and that resource and service utilization rates remain at high levels (geometric mean of 81.87%). This indicates that there is an increase in the average cost along with the increase in production.