Abstract
Objective: To analyze the impact of austerity policies of public spending cuts, considering their effects in the health areas. Methodologies: Literature review with a descriptive approach with an informative character, in which the formulation process took place through searches for scientific literatures, having as descriptors: The impacts of austerity and its setbacks in the present day. Results: Brazil has passing through one of the largest economic recessions in its history, resulting in high rates of decline in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth and, consequently, high rates of unemployment. Within this context, we verified that the efficacy of the measures to confront the crisis are controversial, due to the fact that it only benefits a small part of the population, sacrificing the operation, and harms the maintenance of assistance programs, including those related to public health. Final Considerations: A large part of the population depends exclusively on public health services, but we verified that sufficient investments were not made to meet the population's demand satisfactorily. Thus, at a time of crisis, austerity policies suggest an increase in morbidity, the number of complications and sequelae, leading to an increase in the demand for complex procedures and high premature mortality.