In developing countries, health care is often publicly provided and subsidized
by the government. This is sometimes used as an instrument to redistribute
income and to assure that the poor receive at least some minimum level of
health services. A notable example is Brazil’s Unified and Decentralized Health
Care System (SUS), one of the largest public health programs in the world,
established in 1988 with the goal of providing access to health care for all
citizens, regardless of income. Financed by transfers from the federal government,