SUS AND SOCIAL PROTECTION: CHALLENGES FOR FAMILIES IN FRONT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

ABSTRACT

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on families through their relation with social protection, focusing especially on health policy. The importance of Sistema Unico de Saude - SUS for working-class families in the face of the pandemic is indubitable, even as the federal government continually neglects and dismantles Brazil's social protection system. The pandemic comes to further unveil the country's profound social inequality, which turns families socially vulnerable to COVID-19. It would be salubrious for health services to be preserved and enlarged so that they could cater for the social needs of the families, both before the COVID-19 pandemic as well as other health-related issues. Resuming the State's central role as the leader in the fight of the pandemic, together with a strengthening and extension of Brazil's social protection through social security, is imperative.