Today at UFBA Dr. Eduardo Mota began to teach us the basics of “collective health”. He described the concept of collective health as one that is both difficult to explain and difficult to understand, especially for those who don’t live under the system. Collective health is an idea that developed in the 1980s from the criticisms of the Brazilian health system while the country was under a dictatorship; there were people who criticized the preventive health in the country and also those who were not entirely comfortable with the status of public health. Collective health came from a need to take care of the health of the country as a whole, to focus on preventive medicine, to change clinical practices, and to also reform the entire health system because prevention and public health alone were not enough to address the Brazilians’ needs.
Along with this concept of collective health, the country of Brazil also saw a change in its healthcare system. Previously there were two healthcare systems, one for those with formal employment and one for those without. Now Brazil has SUS, Sistema Único de Saúde, a unified health system for the whole country. This is a public system which is required by the constitution of 1988 to provide healthcare to everyone. Brazilians also have the choice to buy private insurance, which comes with advantages like private clinics and hospitals, shorter wait times, and the ability to deduct this payment from taxes.
The concept of collective health and the status of Brazil’s healthcare system are topics that I am looking forward to learning more about over the next three weeks!
-Alexandria Blake
