The inclusion of health as a fundamental right in the Brazilian 1988 Constitution was not the work of human rights lawyers and judges. Nor was it a mere transplantation of Article 12 of the UN International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights or other international norms, as may perhaps be assumed by those unfamiliar with the Brazilian context. It was the upshot of a long, intense and well-organised political movement, composed mostly of public health experts from both academia and practice (the ‘Sanitary Movement’, as I refer to it in this book).1 With the support of some trade unions, politicians from several parties and a part of civil society, its collectivist conception of health as a public good (saúde coletiva) managed to overcome fierce opposition and become entrenched in the 1988 Constitution as a fundamental right.