People diagnosed with AIDS, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (she) will not have to undergo medical-expert review to continue receiving the temporary disability benefit (former sickness allowance). The measure occurs after the National Congress overthrow, last Tuesday (the 17th), the veto of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to an excerpt from the Bill (PL) No. 5.332/2023, which provided for the dismissal of these reevaluations.
With the overthrow of the veto, the proposal now needs to be promulgated by the Presidency of the Republic within 48 hours of sending the draft project. To date, the document has not yet been sent to the executive.
The measure also dispenses insured that receive sickness and disability retirement, provided they have diseases evaluated in the first expertise as incapacitating in a permanent, irreversible or irrecoverable way.
The text of the draft states that “if medical expert finds that the disability is permanent, irreversible or irrecoverable, the insured retired for permanent disability is dismissed from the reassessment of the conditions that have led to the removal or retirement, granted judicially, except when there is a suspicion of fraud or error.”
Second people close to the Federal Senate, the draft has not yet been sent to the presidency due to last week’s Corpus Christi holiday.
What determined Lula’s veto
Previously, the vetoed section in 2024 by President Lula was part of the PL that provided for the dismissal of the periodic reevaluation of the INSS insured in cases of incapacity considered permanent. By justifying the measure, the project would compromise the proper management of the benefits and prevent the termination of improper payments, and may increase compulsory expenses continuously.
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The government also argued that the measure contradicted the biopsychosocial approach provided for in the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, based only on clinical criteria of the moment, without considering possible therapeutic and technological advances.
Thile of veto divides opinions
For Alex Sandro Brito, Director of Medical Expertise from the Brazilian Institute of Social Security Law (IBDP), the measure has a positive effect:
“It’s a way to prevent the INSS from overloading the system with unnecessary skills. This workforce can be directed to analyze benefits that have been waiting for a concession, such as those who have suffered accidents or underwent surgery.”
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Already the National Association of Medicals Experts (ANMP) criticizes the overthrow of the veto. In a statement, the entity states that the dismissal of reevaluation compromises control over benefits that were originally granted temporarily.
“Without this mechanism, margin is opened for perpetuation of benefits in situations that could be reversible, as well as making it difficult to detect any possible fraud or rehabilitation,” the note says.
ANMP also points out that the new writing can further bureaucratize the routine of experts by creating administrative categories that will require complex documentary analysis and subject to subjective interpretations. According to the entity, this can increase the judicialization and lock even more overloaded.
