BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW

In 1988 Brazil created a new Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil which was their seventh constitution enacted since their independence. The 1988 constitution was made as a result of the military dictatorship that took over Brazil (Coggan, 2014). In the constitution, it states that there is the right to free health care for every citizen which would be funded by the government (Novais, 2012). The funding comes from federal, state, and municipal governments (Healthcare System). The health care system, SUS (Unified Health System) offers free universal coverage. They want to provide equal care for everyone, ranging from the bottom 20% to the high income families (Unified Health, 2016). They focus on primary care and are in charge of public and private health systems. They cant to decentralize health policy down to the state and municipal level (Unified Health, 2016). The municipal level manages and provides the primary health services and the states assist in setting policy goals and providing financial assistance. In order to access the free health care, each person must have and show their identification card and well as their SUS card (Healthcare System). This system is beneficial to certain regions but lacks services in others. Their mission is to help Brazil's public health but many times the system can be unequal and fund the cities more since that is where a majority of the services are needed. There is also a lack of education when it comes to providing services for the whole country of Brazil since different cultures and groups are now taking advantage of the health services provided by the clinics and hospitals.