O direito à saúde e os limites do judiciário diante das demandas por atendimento médico domiciliar

Abstract

The article analyzes the effectiveness of the right to health in Brazil, with a focus on Home Health Care (AD), a care modality provided by the SUS that aims to humanize treatment, reduce hospitalizations, and ensure continuous care at home. It presents the historical trajectory of the right to health, from practices restricted during the colonial period to its establishment as a fundamental right in the 1988 Constitution, regulated by Law No. 8,080/1990. Although AD represents an advance in the provision of health services, its implementation faces structural and logistical gaps, as well as the lack of clear delineation of responsibilities among the Union, States, and Municipalities, which has led to the judicialization of health. Doctrinal analysis highlights the tension between constitutional principles: human dignity, universality of access to health, and the reservation of the possible. Judicial intervention, while necessary to secure individual rights, may compromise equity and collective management. The judicialization of health, while protecting vulnerable citizens, underscores the need for robust and efficient public policies capable of guaranteeing universal health without compromising the system’s sustainability.