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The Brazilian national health system: an unfulfilled promise?
Author(s) -
OckéReis Carlos Octávio,
Marmor Theodore R.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
the international journal of health planning and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.672
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1099-1751
pISSN - 0749-6753
DOI - 10.1002/hpm.1014
Subject(s) - gross domestic product , constitution , per capita , health care , latin americans , public health care , contradiction , universal health care , public health , economic growth , right to health , product (mathematics) , political science , health policy , development economics , economics , sociology , law , population , medicine , demography , philosophy , nursing , geometry , mathematics , epistemology
In 1988, Brazil became one of the first countries in Latin America to frame access to health care as a constitutional right. However, it would be misleading to call Brazil's Unified Health System (Sistema Único de Saúde, or SUS) a public health system that provides universal access and comprehensive care. This paper reveals a strong contradiction between the re‐distribution model set out in the Brazilian Constitution and the inadequate level of public spending on health care. The law states that health care is a basic social right, allocated by need rather than means. Meanwhile, in 2003, Brazil spent US$ 597 per capita on health, or 7.6 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP), while the average country from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) spent US$ 3145, or 10.8 per cent, and Argentina spent US$ 1067, or 8.9 per cent of its GDP. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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