Direito à saúde: análise do acesso ao medicamento sob a ótica do princípio da universalidade

Abstract

The Right to Health encompasses several segments requiring the State to achieve collective interest in this sensitive sector, including access to medicines. In a contemporary reading, it is possible to observe, in the normative field, a greater protection to the right to health, currently considered a fundamental right. In the modern legal context, the 1988 Federal Constitution is the initial step in health issues. In addition, giving greater concreteness to the constitutional provisions, there is the Organic Health Law-Federal Law 8.080/90-, which regulates the health sector in order to discipline its organization, to establish its own principles, among other prescriptions. Considering that these legal provisions are relatively recent, we question the effective possibility of complying with the principle of universality of the Unified Health System, taking in to account social, economic and educational aspects that may influence the effective access to health goods, specifically on medicines. Moreover, since it is not possible to comply with the principle of universality in an absolute way, but in a maximum effectiveness, it is urgent to reflection which parameters would be legitimate to weigh the scope of this principle in order to make it an optimization warrant, fulfilling the aspect teleological approach to the right to health, and covering the maximum number of users effectively in need of state action. Thus, through exploratory research in bibliographic surveys, it was possible to observe iniquities regarding access to medicines, in addition to verifying the historical evolution of the Judiciary's position in the face of problems that demanded legal criteria in the construction of access to health.