🏥 Health, super-sized

In the late 1980s, Brazil made a radical promise: health care would no longer be a privilege tied to a paycheck, but a citizen’s right. Thirty-five years ago today, that promise became the Unified Health System (SUS), which still stands as the world’s largest free public health network — one that has saved millions of lives while straining under constant pressure.

Until the creation of the SUS, access to health care in Brazil was largely determined by one’s place in the labor market.Workers with formal jobs could use the state-run medical assistance institute known as Inamps, which was funded through payroll contributions. However, nearly half of Brazilians at the time…

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