Direito, justiça e judicialização em saúde bucal

Abstract

The right to health is a social right provided by the Brazilian Constitution, essential to the well-being and dignity of the human being. The aim of this study is to analyze the requests for dental treatments in the Brazilian National Health System of Minas Gerais state in the judiciary, in order to know their characteristics, as well as the legal, principle and biological argumentation (characterized by the need of the patient of the Brazilian National Health System) used by the judges in the elaboration of their decisions. A survey was made covering the judgments listed on electronic websites given by the Minas Gerais Court of Justice in the period from 2006 to 2016, resulting in 27 judgments adequate to the study. The results denote that the actions were postulated individually, with 93% of success in favor of users, and reports or requisitions were submitted in 88% of the actions. The main complaints that originated the requests for dental treatment were grouped into five groups. The most requested dental treatments were surgery for the placement of implants (seven judgments), followed by orthodontic appliance (five judgments). The legal basis was based on the 1988 Constitution for theoretical justification, and the article 196 was the most cited, in 25 of the 27 judgments. In the reasoning based on the principle argumentation, the right to health was the most used (20 judgments), strengthening this social right, followed by the principle of the dignity of the human person (12 judgments), the principle of reserve of possible (10 judgments) and the right to life (eight judgments). Justice has been sought as an alternative to access health services, but the consequences of this fact must be analyzed beyond the individual benefited because it involves the whole society.