Comprehensiveness and universality of the pharmaceutical assistance in times of judicialization of health care

Law no. 12,401/2011 and Decree no. 7,508/2011 are celebrated, among other reasons, for introducing new rules for the pharmaceutical assistance policy that would have the potential to streamline the judicialization of health care in Brazil. This study aims to analyze the effects of the universal access to the comprehensive pharmaceutical assistance established by these legislations considering the judicialization of medicines in the state of Minas Gerais from 1999 to 2009. This is a retrospective study that analyzes the legal disputes deferred against Minas Gerais during the period. If the criteria established in 2011 were normalized and respected by the Judiciary in this interval, between 68.84% and 85.77% of the medicines judicialized in Minas Gerais would have been rejected. However, despite having the potential to streamline the judicialization, the legislations do not seem to have influenced the judicial decisions permanently.