Traffic accidents and the right to health: prevention of lives and public economics

Abstract

Traffic accidents are a significant source of costs to the Brazilian public health system. In contrast, their prevention is an important act of public health management, to reduce both the direct costs to the Brazilian National Public Health System (Sistema Único de Saúde – SUS) and the indirect expenses to the social security system, the victims, their families and the economic system in general. This article aims to demonstrate that guaranteeing the right to health is a challenge intensified by the expenditure on care and on treatment of victims of traffic accidents. It also aims to show the importance of understanding prevention as a duty of the State, in legal terms of access to health. A literature review was conducted in order to situate the problem of ensuring the right to health in a preventive manner, with impact on the budget of the State-Administration. The quantitative method contributed to understand the importance of prevention as a social public health policy, mainly on the traffic of the Brazilian roads. Therefore, it was possible to establish a projection of public expenditure related to health care and to demonstrate the impact of traffic accidents on public finances, in order to relate the preventive policies of accidents with the maintenance and the preservation of individuals' health. It is double way prevention: financial economics and human resources economics.