Brazil's Publicly-Funded Health Care System

The Sistema Único de Saúde (Portuguese for Unified Health System) is Brazil’s publicly-funded health care system. SUS was created after the Brazilian Constitution of 1988, which assured that health care is a “right of all and an obligation of the State” .

Prior to that, only people who contributed with the social security were able to receive health care. The creation of SUS was important in the sense that more than 80% of the Brazilian population depend on it to receive medical treatment.

Brazil provides two-tier health care, but only 18,5% of the population can pay for private insurance