Accountability for Social and Economic Rights in Brazil

Claiming the Right to Health in Brazilian Courts: The Exclusion of the Already Excluded?

“…This suggests that the citizens are not in fact joining together to fight for their right to health care, but rather that someone is sponsoring these civil associations and NGOs to file lawsuits. According to Hoffmann and Bentes (2008, 114–15), “NGOs are not always immune to overtures from the pharmaceutical industry, and some openly admit that they are co‐sponsored by private sector health companies” (see also Scheffer, Salazar, and Grou 2005, 63 ff. ).…”

“…Thus, it may be argued that they are twice excluded: In the first place, although access to the judiciary branch is formally open to every person, lower‐income individuals are often blocked from this access for economic reasons, especially when associated with a lack of information (see Junqueira 2003, 182; Hoffmann and Bentes 2008, 105, 113). In the second place, they are excluded from receiving the most modern and effective medication and medical treatment, which, despite being publicly funded, are accessible only to those who overcome the first hurdle, that is, to those who have obtained access to the judiciary (since the type of judicial decision we are dealing with here benefits only those involved in the case).…”

“…See, for instance, Vieira and Zucchi (2007, 214) and Lopes (2006, 185). For more comprehensive research, see also Hoffmann and Bentes (2008, 100). Their research, although based mainly on files of judicial proceedings, also included interviews with judicial and other relevant actors and a review of relevant literature.…”

The Role of Courts and Constitutions in the New Politics of Welfare in Latin America

“…In Brazil, patient groups use litigation to sue for more up-to-date treatments, arguing that the agency in charge of updating the public health offering is failing to keep up with advances in medical technology. 33 Other times, they act to ensure that frontline bureaucrats are carrying out the legislative mandate and national policy -65 percent of the drugs being demanded through litigation in Brazil are on the approved list, but patients are unable to secure them. 34 In Colombia, until the major decision in 2008 that sought to completely restructure the public health system, 35 the vast majority of the tens of thousands of cases seeking medical treatment and medications were demands for goods and services that were already included in legislated mandates, and that should have been supplied by the private providers who were being sued.…”

Tactical Balancing: High Court Decision Making on Politically Crucial Cases

“… 2 Not all scholars completely agree: Koerner (2006) holds that analysts have exaggerated the court's assertiveness, and Hoffmann and Bentes (2008), Kapiszewski (2011), and Lima Lopes (2006) discuss the STF's weaker record in the rights realm. …”