Procedural volume, vulnerability, and access to justice: relationship between judicialization and the health structure in Minas Gerais, Brazil

The right to health is fundamental to life, being one of the main human rights. The realization of this right by the judicial system is a mechanism for the defense of citizens to ensure that the State complies with it through investments in the health structure and the implementation of public policies. This research sought to investigate the factors that influence the volume of health judicialization processes, clarifying the relationship between socioeconomic vulnerability, public health structure, and the structure of access to justice in the regions of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, in the period from 2015 to 2017. The research was based on primary and secondary data of the model variables, and a panel data analysis was carried out to validate the theoretical hypotheses and discuss results. It was observed, from empirical studies, that the judicialization of health has a greater volume of lawsuits in regions with less economic vulnerability, lesser structure of access to justice, and greater investment in the health structure, differently from the theoretical survey of the study hypotheses. It was expected that the degree of socioeconomic vulnerability would be decisive in the volume of judicialization. Therefore, the theoretical hypotheses have been refuted. It is suggested to include other variables referring to the public health structure and population's demographic characteristics, such as, for example, those in the register of social assistance policies, for a new analysis of the hypotheses in future studies.