Law and health: The jurisprudence of the court of Rio de Janeiro in relation to the supply of drugs by the health system

The relationship between Law and Public Health was intensified in the jurisprudence and interventions of the Judiciary in Health Policy. This work aims to identify legal arguments described by the Court of Justice of the State of Rio de Janeiro (TJ/RJ) in judicial decisions for individual lawsuits on access to medicines considered as essential during 2006. The argumentative analysis of 190 decisions in the site of the TJ/RJ noted the relevance of the right to health, protected constitutionally with immediate application. Another argument is that the processual authors need medicines of essential and continuous use, as so as the Court gives emphasis to the economical hypo-sufficiency of the petitioner. Though the Health System is ruled in the principles of the integrality and universality, the financial condition is pointed like relevant justification. The solidary responsibility between Local authorities and State in pharmaceutical assistance is pointed, to refute the defense of the agreement between federative entities regarding the supply of medicines. Ruled in the principle of the weighting of interests, affirms the predominance of the right to the life and to the health, before budgetary and administrative rules. Condemnations for long periods were identified, represented by "while need them (medicine)" or "of any other (medicine) that will be made necessary ", since accompanied by prescription. The problematization of these questions allows understanding some answers to the demands of access to medicines and/or to the justice in the context of the public health. The study allows to identify central ideas on essentiality of the medicine to life and the reification of medical prescription, which can be relativized when if the arguments of the heath sector were used.