Challenges and perspectives of supplementary health: notes on the state of the art in the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court and the Superior Court of Justice

Abstract

Objective: to analyze the perspectives and challenges in the realization of the duty to guarantee the most complete assistance in the field of supplementary health. Methods: qualitative research of descriptive nature that analyzed documentary collection composed of the main legal diplomas related to the field of supplementary health and the evolution of jurisprudence of the Supreme Court and the Superior Court of Justice in this area, especially about the supply of medicines not registered by Anvisa or off label use of registered medicines, and about the mitigated taxation of the ANS list. Results: the agreements signed between the health plans and the beneficiaries configure contractual relationship in which the consumer is the vulnerable party, but, on the other hand, holds information that is not known to the operator. This, in turn, has technical knowledge about diseases and treatments far beyond the understanding of a common consumer. In this market, in which information asymmetry predominates, the importance of the firm action of the regulatory agency, an entity capable of balancing the system, giving uniform treatment to issues that should be considered globally, in view of the mass of consumers of health plans, taking into account the specificities of each type of contract, individual or collective, before or after Bill 9,656/1998. Conclusion: the Legislative action must take into account the delicate balance between needs and possibilities, as well as the characteristics inherent in the private character of the provision, in a supplementary nature, of services of a public nature, whereas intervention by the judiciary to rule against decisions of the regulatory agency is justified only in cases of clear illegality and, above all, must take into account the whole of the regulated system, which is not always easily perceived in view of individual cases.

Received: 26/07/23 | Accepted: 21/08/23