Risco e gestão da vida: uma análise socioantropológica sobre litígios de saúde no município de João Pessoa/PB

Abstract

The increase in the number of lawsuits regarding health issues in Brazil has reverberated in multiple topics involving this phenomenon, for example: the limits of judicial intervention in the realization of the right to health, the budgetary impacts on public coffers, and the position of the State as a defendant in this scenario are discussed. In the context of the city of João Pessoa-PB, it is no different, since, year after year, the number of people who take legal action in order to judicialize health care is growing. With the intent of providing a perspective of this phenomenon in through a Social Sciences lens, this research aims to understand the implications of the judicialization of the right to health in the city of João Pessoa-PB. In methodological terms, this is a qualitative research, in which the ethnographic method was applied to analyse documents. A total of 05 (five) lawsuits related to the judicialization of health in the municipality of João Pessoa was analysed. The data were collected directly from the Municipal Judicial Archives. This research concluded that two sides of the State coexist: the “manager” State, which prioritizes financial resources over the value of individual life, and is represented by the figure of the Attorneys; and the State, which takes the responsibility of guaranteeing the right of individuals to health, and is represented by Public Defenders, Judges, Attorneys of Justice and Appellate Judges. After analysing the documents, the health risk was identified as a fundamental element in the multiple discourses of these legal operators, either to legitimize legal claims or to delegitimize them