Brazilian public health in the context of a State crisis or a crisis of capitalism?

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the trend of Brazilian universal public health in the context of the structural crisis of capitalism, articulating the interests of capital and of the State, without being possible to refer to a crisis of the Modern State. To do so, the article is organized into two parts. The first part seeks to analyze the nature of the crisis, identifying trends in the development of capitalism, especially in the last decades of the 20th century and in the first decade of the 21st century, with emphasis on the Marxian law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall and the dominance of the interest-bearing capital. The second part discusses the impacts of this crisis on the universal right to health in Brazil, especially since the 1990s, confirming the uncertainties of the funding of the Brazilian National Health System (SUS) and the growing movement of capital appropriation on the resources of social policies of social security rights, especially related to health. Lastly, final considerations are presented, including proposals to address this situation of instability and underfunding of the health system.