The phenomenon of judicialization of health in the city of Santos/SP Maria Renata de Barros Mello, Amélia Cohn

Abstract

This article studies the trends of the Judiciary regarding the judicialization of the right to health in the city of Santos, through research on civil lawsuits distributed in the years 2012 and 2013 with their developments (preliminary injunctions, sentences handed down and appeals filed with the Court of Justice). By judicialization of the right to health, we understand the judicialization of various health services and health care. This is an exploratory, descriptive, longitudinal study, using mixed techniques of survey and analysis of data collected in the civil distributor of the Santos Forum, together with the website of the TJSP. 307 lawsuits against private initiative, health plans and hospitals were collected and analyzed, which corresponds to 96% of the total cases of judicialization of health distributed in the period between 2012 and 2013 and the remainder (4%) refer to letters rogatory distributed in the district, which were not the object of the study. No lawsuits distributed regarding the judicialization of health were located during this period. health care against the Municipality of Santos. The results collected indicate that the main requests were for preliminary injunctions, followed by compensation for damages/medical errors (material and moral), non-performance and interpretation of contracts. Almost all of the lawsuits were filed by private attorneys. The results of the survey confirm some dominant theses in the national debate, especially the claim that it is a phenomenon of the elites. The judicialization of health care is here to stay. The number of lawsuits in the judiciary involving this topic grows year after year.