From judicialization to advocacy: the action of the powers in the case of the ANS (exhaustive) list

Abstract

This essay exposes the dispute over the comprehensive List of Procedures and health events of the National Agency of Supplementary Health (ANS), promoting discussions between the fields of law and public health, through publicly available legal documents. In Superior Court of Justice (STJ) judgments, the theses whether the list is comprehensive or illustrative are extracted.Crossing to the executive and legislative branches, provisional executive order n. 1067/21 and bill n. 2033/22 will be selected, especially the debate in the Senate, evidencing the role of advocacy. In the discussion section, the literature is invited to oppose the views of the right to health based on market verve or as a social value. It is shown that the dispute over the ANS’ list has 2022 as a critical point – and not as an arising point. The executive had already issued a provisional executive order in 2021 using the economistic and technocratic arguments, repeated by the ANS and Justice Salomão. The judiciary was already dealing with the growing number of lawsuits arising from denials of coverage, and with a STJ split between the comprehensive or illustrative interpretations of the list. The legislature has also presented bills since 2008. The advocacy performance highlighted the absence of public health and the action of groups motivated by individualized relationships. It appears that the powers do not act in a watertight manner in the definition of health policies in Brazil.