The Cebes and the uncompromising defense of the right to health and of democracy

Abstract

EXACTLY 40 YEARS AGO, a group of young sanitarian doctors from the University of São Paulo proposed the creation of the Brazilian Center for Health Studies (Cebes), which would have as one of its objectives to promote, through a journal, "the analysis of the health sector as a component of the social-historical process" (CEBES, 1976, p. 3). The foundation of the Cebes and of the journal 'Saúde em Debate' occurred during the XXVIII Meeting of the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science (SBPC), held in July 1976 in Brasília. The journal quickly became one of the main vehicles of critical analysis of the determinants of health and of proposals of policies for the sector. Although emerged in the academia, through the journal and its clear position against the military regime, the Cebes gained affiliate members among health professionals and related areas, and created links with the ecclesial base communities, with the trade union movement, and with neighborhood associations and leftist groups. Some of the members gathered in nuclei, forming study groups, organizing seminars to discuss the entity documents, and became active divulgators of the journal. The Cebes played an important role in the emergence and strengthening of the so-called health movement as well as in the creation of the Unified Health System (SUS), having, since then, significant political influence in the sector. The performance of Cebes during those 40 years was marked out for the defense of democracy as a value, as a timeless cause, whose rules must be respected by all and guaranteed by the institutions created to ensure the democratic game. The issue of democracy is intrinsic to the defense of the right to health as a right of citizenship, as well as of all other universal social rights. Examples of this mode of operating from the Cebes can be recovered from the I Symposium on National Health Policy, sponsored by the Health Committee of the House of Representatives, held in 1979, which brought together the main leaderships and organizations concerned with the health situation in the country. In that event, the Cebes released the document entitled 'Democratization and health', which criticized the 'commodification/marketization of medicine' proposing the transformation of 'lucrative medical practices into a free social good available to the entire population'; the creation of a 'unified health system' and the assignment to the State of the 'full responsibility for the management of that system'. The document emphasized: "Grows [...] the anger of the population against the queues, the bureaucracy, the corruption, and the costs of the poor medical attention that they receive. [...] As that happens, the Brazilian medicine is experiencing a deep crisis. Criticisms to its quality are exacerbated." (CEBES, 1981, p. 227). Reading this, one might say that little has changed. However, quite the opposite happened, much has changed. Of the approximately 120 million Brazilians in 1980, one third had no access to health services, and many of the servic...