With the passage of the Constitution, Brazil implemented its Unified Health System ( Sistema Único de Saúde ), which offers free comprehensive health care to the entire population. The 1988 Constitution (still in effect today) expanded the idea of human rights to encompass all aspects of human life, including health, and the document declared health care as a right for all Brazilians. When authoritarian rule finally ended in 1986, the concept of human rights became integral in the rewriting of the country’s democratic principles. In the early 1980s, Brazil was emerging from a twenty-year military dictatorship. Its arrival coincided with the country’s redemocratization process. The first case of the virus was registered in 1980. In Brazil, healthcare is a right, and the government provides free and universal access to antiretroviral (ARVs) medicines for people with HIV/AIDS. When a friend of mine was diagnosed with HIV in Brazil recently, I knew they would receive better treatment there than they ever would here. The fierce debate over the idea of healthcare as a “right” versus a “privilege” on Capitol Hill seems almost antiquated when compared with other countries.
has made me think about universal healthcare, disease, and rights in a global context.
The fight over the future of the ACA here in the U.S.
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