Reducing Review of Health Care Policies?
Posted: 26 Apr 2015
Date Written: April 25, 2015
Abstract
The author takes an unconventional approach to the question of judicial review of health care by trying to identify the path that will lead to reducing such judicial review, i.e., a reversal of the current growth trend in the number of Brazilian court cases involving the right to therapeutic assistance, which has quadrupled in the past 4 years from approximately 100,000 claims in progress in 2010 to 400,000 in 2014. Considering that the most perverse effect of judicial review of health is the resulting disruption in the universality of access to health care services, with the creation of two SUS (unified health-care systems), one of them in favour of those who file court claims and the other favouring those who do not, the text searches for solutions. The author in some cases holds the public authorities responsible should be oriented towards the supremacy of fundamental rights and not by the literal interpretation of the statutes and regulations, at in other cases encourages judicial review of health policies but only through class actions as a currently feasible alternative to fight against the repetitive claims filed with the SUS, which has not yet realised the need for guarantees of true due process of law even though such guarantees are called for by the Constitution and applicable statutes.
Keywords: Judicial review of health, public policies, health care law
JEL Classification: I18, K32, K23, K41, I11, I28, H75, H51
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation