Institutional differences in Public Healthcare - a comparison between SUS from Brazil and NHS from UK

Abstract

Created in 1988 together with the Federal Constitution of Brazil, and after a long and intense national sanitary movement, the SUS is a health system inspired by the models of European countries, especially the NHS (National Health Service) of the United Kingdom. Such health systems are the result of relevant long-term public policies, and their characteristics, statistics, outcomes, and public opinions are presented with a cultural background, which has been composed since the formation of countries. People directly depend on these systems to survive, especially those who are limited to public health policies and cannot afford private health care. The objective of this work was to evaluate metric attributes of the SUS and the NHS in terms of public policy, access to health, women's health, epidemiology, and culture. Databases from DATASUS, NHS DATASETS Digital and Hofstede Insights were used. In terms of culture, 2 new attributes were proposed for comparison between countries: medical elitism and street level bureaucrats. The results show that SUS is behind NHS in medical/hospital capacity, close to NHS in access, women's health, and chronic disease control, and behind in the control of contagious diseases. In the cultural sphere, the English profile is pictured by an individual who is more long-term oriented, challenging, focused on science, while the Brazilian individual is more subordinate, immediate, and demands more assistance and paternalism.