Abstract
The aim of this study was to characterize the lawsuits requesting drugs considering the economic profile of their petitioners. All lawsuits (1378) accepted against Goiânia, GO from 2003 to 2007 were analyzed. Petitioners' demographic characteristics, reported diseases, requested drugs, origin of healthcare service, and lawsuit agent were described. Complainants' addresses were georeferenced and distributed into 4 regional groups classified in accordance with the population's average income. Dwellers of wealthier regions filed court actions requesting drugs more frequently, with an average rate of 1.7 lawsuits/1000 inhabitants versus 0.55/1000 in the poorer region. Lawsuit costs were 4-fold higher in wealthier regions compared with the poorest region. Chronic diseases were involved in most lawsuits, where acute and low complexity diseases predominated among complainants living in poorer regions. Thus, social differences were reflected in the granting of health rights.
Highlights
Access to health care services in Brazil is free, universal and grants full assistance to its users, include pharmaceutical
The study involved the analysis of court actions demanding drugs that were accepted and granted at the city of Goiânia-GO-Brazil
Pharmacy of Goiânia found 1,344 petitioning citizens who filed a total of 1,378 lawsuits demanding different drugs from January 2003 to December 2007
Summary
Access to health care services in Brazil is free, universal and grants full assistance to its users, include pharmaceutical. In the last few years an increasing number of citizens have brought court actions to grant access to drugs prescribed for their treatments and this litigation has become a management and financial problem for the national and local health systems (Messeder, Osorio-deCastro, Luiza, 2005). This phenomenon has been coined health “judicialization”.
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