SUS in the labor sphere: the corporatist tradition of rights and the privatization of healthcare

Abstract

This article investigates the implications of union corporate behavior for the construction of the Brazilian National Health System (SUS) in Brazil. In view of the union struggle for health care, we analyzed the dynamics of the health insurance market based on collective labor negotiations. By documenting this link, we characterize corporatism as a political phenomenon which, over time, shapes the tradition of labor struggles in a way that weakens the social support base for SUS, by affecting the capacity of political forces to act collectively to overcome the hybridity of public and private interests present in the health insurance market. Against this backdrop, we dialogue with collective health theses, pointing out that studies in this area still fail to fully recognize the centrality of Brazilian unions in the realization of the public and universal aims of the Public Health Reform movement. In conclusion, we suggest that political alignment between health workers and union members is a crucial condition for advancing the struggles and public legitimacy of SUS, something that will be necessary to overcome sectoral fragmentation in health access.

Keywords:
Corporatism; Unionism; Public Health reform; Supplementary Health; SUS