Reflections on the Unified Health System and the Servizio Sanitario Nazionale: the reform of the reform - the adoption of Ticket Sanitario

Abstract

From the comparison performed between the institutionalization of Servizio Sanitario Nazionale (SSN), in Italy, and the Unified Health System (SUS), in Brazil, both based on the philosophy of the right to health and under the aegis of the State, the article aims to analyze the reform implemented by SSN, which introduced the co-participation of the user in the cost of care, upon payment of the Ticket Sanitario. If on the one hand this reform aimed to tackle the fiscal crisis, on the other, it brought serious consequences to the life and health condition of the Italian population. Using also the methodology of comparison between health systems, the study draws attention to the adoption of reform proposals, now by the SUS. The proposals presented by the documents “Agenda Brasil” and “Uma ponte para o futuro”, targeting the selective charge for care, decharacterizes SUS when institutionalizing differentiated entrance gateways. This way, as happens with the Italians, the fiscal crisis imposes, now, on the Brazilians, the disrespect to the right to health.