On Aug. 5, 2016 Brazil’s acting leader, Vice President Michel Temer, signaled the start of the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics, an occasion that should’ve been met with joy but was not. Thousands of angry citizens outside the stadiums heckled Temer, voicing their dislike and displeasure for their current leader. At first, arena officials increased the volume of the opening music in an attempt to conceal the cries of anger and dissatisfaction. However, when the protesters began to block the entrances to the stadiums, the Brazilian Police began firing tear gas and rubber bullets at the crowd. In response to this chaos, Brazil’s justice minister said in a press conference that “these kinds of political protests cannot disturb the games,” according an Aug. 9 NPR article — but that statement only made matters worse, serving as a confirmation of the people’s suspicions that the government was prioritizing these games over them. 

Considering that these games will end up costing an estimated $12 billion — probably even more due to potential cost overruns — Brazilians have good reason to feel this way. 

According to a Pew Research poll conducted in 2014, 83 percent of Brazilians say that healthcare is a major problem in society, but it is obvious that the government has other priorities. Instead of spending grotesque amounts of taxpayer dollars on an event it couldn’t reasonably afford, the Brazilian government should have thought of spending that money on its people. Brazilians face many problems right now, ranging from corruption to massive wealth disparity to a historic recession. But for our purposes, let’s look specifically at the healthcare system. 

According to the World Policy Institute, Brazil’s health system is currently severely underfunded and is worsening under this current economic crisis. They claim that in 2009,  Brazil’s government spent only about 3.6 percent of its GDP on healthcare. This, according to Sergio Paulo, a Brazilian Economics Researcher, is only about half what the country must spend in order fulfill its goal of a functioning healthcare system. This underfunding can explain why Brazil has about half the doctors and a sixth of the nurses per 1000 people as compared to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development average. It can also explain why Recife, one of the cities affected the most by the current Zika virus, has only received about 10 percent of its requested emergency service money in 2015. But most noticeably, Brazil’s lack of healthcare funding can explain why a lack of infrastructure and basic supplies is affecting thousands of hospitals and clinics across the country.

Brazil’s lack of healthcare infrastructure and equipment can perhaps best be demonstrated by the city of Mesquita. According to Abrasco, a Brazilian-based health journal, the city of Mesquita’s single 12 doctor emergency unit is the only medical facility available for a city of about 185,000 people. 

This extremely low ratio has taken its toll on the small hospital, which sees about 700 cases a day. This is unacceptable, and it is the main reason why heart attack patients at that hospital have to wait about four days for adequate testing. In addition, Dr. Fabricio Quintanilha of that emergency unit claimed that half of his four respirators are not working, that several of his cardiac monitors are broken and that “the state is not paying its bills.” Mesquita’s hospital is only one example of how the underfunding of Brazil’s healthcare system is negatively affecting millions of Brazilians every day. 

According to an Oct. 1, 2013 CNN article, the Brazilian government presented its first 2016 Olympic bid to the International Olympic Committee in September of 2007. This was a self-centered and narrowly focused decision, because every tax dollar funding the Olympics is a potential tax dollar taken away from the country’s poor healthcare system. In other words, the Brazilian government has shown that it would rather be in the international spotlight for a span of a few weeks rather than improve its own health standards. As a nation, Brazil was in absolutely no position to post an Olympic bid given the current status of its healthcare system. 

According to the Oct. 13, 2009 Rio Times article, the Brazilian Ministry of Sport had initially told its people that the Olympics would bring in an estimated $30 billion in “foreign investment and economic impact.” This thinking, however, is nothing short of pure fantasy. An Aug. 5, 2014 New York Times article claims that there is “strikingly little evidence“ that these games will draw any new investments. Furthermore, a Jan. 13, 2014 Wall Street Survivor blog claims that the Rio games will generate $6 billion, at most, half of which will go to the International Olympic Committee. Last but not least, these losses will be considerably magnified since the 2016 Oxford Olympic Study has said that these Rio Olympic Games currently have a cost overrun of about 51 percent. In other words, this proposed $12 or $13 billion “budget” will probably exceed the $20 billion range. 

It is true that hosting an Olympic Games will generally do more than harm than good from an economic standpoint, but Brazil’s decision to host these games at this particular time has extremely amplified the mess that they are currently in. 

A Mar. 3 CNN  article reports the country is undergoing its longest recession since the 1930s, so this potential 20 billion dollar price tag will only deepen the country’s current economic wounds. Furthermore, these colossal costs come just after the country had spent $15 billion on the 2014 World Cup, according to a FIFA document titled “FAQ: Setting the record straight.” Sure, London, which hosted the last summer games in 2012, took an economic hit of $15 billion, but it was not suffering from any major financial recession at the time. Brazil, however, dug itself into a hole so deep that it is hard to imagine any sort of financial recovery.

As you recall watching the Rio Olympics, consider those who are currently suffering due to the government’s selfish and incompetent policy decisions — everyone from the heart attack patients who have to wait days for treatment because of the government’s lack of healthcare funding to the millions of Brazilians who opposed hosting the Olympics right from the start.