The fundamental right to health and the system access policy: an approach from the law 1751 of 2015

Abstract

The Congress of the Republic, in 2015, promulgated the Statutory Law 1751, by means of which the fundamental right to health is enshrined, giving guidelines to the Ministry of Health and Social Protection to make significant reforms to the general social security system in health. These include the elimination of the difference between the Compulsory Health Plan (POS), both contributory and subsidized, and the creation of a National Pharmacological Policy, generating concerns about possible disturbances regarding access to medication and the health system. This paper investigates the normative background of this law, as well as the most relevant concepts of the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court, embodied in some of its judgments, highlighting the T-760 of 2008, which is the central axis of the consecration of health as an autonomous fundamental right. All the above seeks to answer the question whether it really was necessary for Congress to issue a Statutory Law proclaiming the fundamental right to health.