Judicialização da saúde e medicamentos em Manaus/AM

Abstract

Assuming that health in Brazil is considered a constitutional and universal right and simultaneously a state’s obligation, this master’s thesis aims to analyze the judicialization of health in terms of the search for access to medicines in the city of Manaus, capital of the state of Amazonas, aiming to contribute to a wider national discussion. This is an explanatory research which uses the critical method, dedicating to the theme an interdisciplinary approach; it also rescues the historical-epistemic trajectory of universal public health and the Brazilian public health system, seeking to investigate the concept of health institutionalized by the 1988 Constitution and to frame its normative structure; besides that, it aims to verify how the Judiciary Power in the State of Amazonas deals with the phenomenon of the judicialization of health. For that, it was used the explanatory research with content analysis technique, which consisted of judicial processes collected through the Electronic Journal of Justice (DJE) of the Court of Justice of the State of Amazonas (TJAM), referring to the period of procedural processing between 2018 and 2019. By verifying how the phenomenon of the judicialization of health manifests itself in the state of Amazonas, mainly in Manaus, not only were identified the main drugs and other goods demanded in court, but also its frequence in health demands supported by the Public Defender's Office (DPE-AM), the Public Prosecutor's Office (MPE-AM) and by private lawyers, in addition to the average response time to the requests for emergency relief and sentencing. Finally, taking into account that of the 160 cases analyzed, 94 had a favorable result, favorable to the claimants - 25 cases having no sentence until the date of 01/05/2020 (date of completion of this research), 12 cases were terminated without resolution of merits, 07 cases were sentenced as unfounded (against the claimants), 05 cases were sentenced as partially valid, and 01 case was closed with agreement between the parties - it is concluded that the Judiciary of Amazonas, supported by the advice of the Division of Technical Support to the Judiciary (NATJUS), and aligned with the superior jurisprudence of the STJ and STF, stands out in favor of the realization of the fundamental right to health in an integral way, although the response time to each demand is not uniform, in some cases being absurdly prolonged, which, however, must be analyzed in the context of each case, always considering the degree of cooperation and responsibility of the agents involved in the process.