Despite Troubles, Brazil’s SUS Health System Can Be a Model for Latin America by Armínio Fraga, Miguel Lago, Rudi Rocha published by Americas Quarterly (8/2020).
“RIO DE JANEIRO — What if, following the pandemic shock, all Latin American countries heavily increased investments to build robust, comprehensive and universal health care systems?
As COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc, by late May Brazil had surpassed the United States in having the world’s highest daily death rate related to the virus. As a result, one may not think of Brazil as an inspiration for public health policies at the moment. However, the Brazilian experience shows that building a strong public health care service on a continental scale is not only possible, but highly effective to improve the health of citizens, particularly those in more vulnerable situations.
Indeed, the pandemic highlighted how important it was for Brazil to have one of the most comprehensive health care systems in the developing world. Inspired by the British National Health Services, the Unified Health System (known as SUS, for its initials in Portuguese) is a key feature of the 1988 Constitution, drafted following the end of military rule in 1985. Brazil is the only country in the world with a population of more than 100 million to have a universal health care system.
The SUS notwithstanding, the federal government’s response to COVID-19 could not have been worse — the president himself famously called it “nothing but a little flu,” opposed social distancing measures, advocated distributing drugs with no proven effect, and encouraged people to form rallies and agglomerations. There was no national strategy to deal with the crisis. As a result, the decentralized approach of the SUS has been activated endogenously by state and municipal governments and is managing to provide at least some response to the crisis…”
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