SUS: LEGAL FRAMEWORK OF THE COMPREHENSIVENESS OF HEALTH CARE

Abstract

This article aimed to analyze the principle of comprehensiveness in health care within the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS), based on the 1988 Federal Constitution and the infraconstitutional legislation that regulates the right to health as a social and fundamental right. Qualitative, exploratory, and descriptive in nature, the research is grounded in bibliographic and documentary review, encompassing legal doctrine, scientific articles, and recent case law from the Federal Supreme Court and the Superior Court of Justice, as well as Laws No. 8,080/1990 and No. 8,142/1990. It was found that, although the Brazilian legal system recognizes health as a right of all and a duty of the State, structural, financial, and administrative barriers persist, hindering the implementation of comprehensiveness — such as underfunding of SUS, service fragmentation, regional inequalities, and growing judicialization. It is concluded that comprehensiveness, as a structuring principle, requires intersectoral public policies, efficient management, and humanized professional practices, emphasizing the strengthening of Primary Health Care (PHC) and Health Care Networks (HCN), being essential to the realization of the right to health and human dignity.