The article analyses the results of the research Cost and Evaluation of the Impact of the Implantation of the Basic Care Incentive (Piso de Atenção Básica), which evaluated the decentralization of health services through incentives for primary care services supply. From a retrospective longitudinal study, the changes in the structure of the federal financial incentives for States and Municipalities are analyzed. The article also discusses the impact of the basic care oriented policy on the supply of the ambulatorial care and in the health care labor force at municipal level. The paper shows a meaning increase of the ambulatorial and primary care supply in the public sector in Brazil in the nineties. The small cities has been soundly favored with the new financial incentives from the public policy.
Ambulatory care; Decentralization; Primary care financing; Program evaluation; Health care supply
