Users satisfaction with the Brazilian Public Health System

Abstract

This article is a discussion about the users’ evaluation of the Brazilian Public Health System, or Sistema Único de Saúde – SUS. It presents the results of a research carried out by the University of Brasília on request from the Ministry of Health, which used a wide range of applied social research techniques in eight metropolitan regions of Brazil . The research was based on the principle that the opinion of SUS users is essentially important in improving the system. Contrary to the common sense, the data indicated a high level of satisfaction with the health system. A possible explanation for this is the view that, despite its problems, SUS has accomplished its role of providing universal health service and its existence is better than nothing.