Judiciary actions in the scope of the brazilian health system, legal bases and implications: a case study in a court of the Southeast Region

Abstract

This article intends to study, based on the database called Health Laws' Research System - SPDISA, the legal basis and the talking used by judges to utter sentences related to right to health in the scope of the Brazilian National Health System. This study has adopted a qualitative perspective by analyzing the sentences pronounced by the Court of Justice of Minas Gerais between 2000 and 2007. The documentary research was carried through the technique of content and the profile information was consolidated from simple percentages. A total of 4217 sentences were met and 83.87% of them were granted for guardianship anticipation. It became proved that the article 196 from the Brazilian Federal Constitution of 1988 has been used to sustain the sentence, in a percentage of 78,98%. However, from this percentage, 87% of the decisions have used only part of the article, arguing that health is a right of all citizens and a duty of the state, without considering the effective public health politics which try to guarantee equity in SUS.