National care policy in Brazil: an analysis based on the experience of uruguayan legislation

Abstract

Contemporary social protection faces the challenge of guaranteeing human dignity in the face of an aging population and the care crisis, which requires moving beyond social security models that depend exclusively on employment to a comprehensive social protection system that covers states of need and neutralizes the social insecurity described by Castel. In this context, the law intervenes by recognizing care as an autonomous and universal human right, imposing positive obligations on the state to socially reorganize these tasks under principles of co-responsibility and solidarity. The research raises the question of the extent to which Brazil’s National Care Policy (Law No. 15,069/2024) is compatible with international standards and how this influences the materialization of comprehensive social protection, based on the hypothesis that such compatibility exists and promotes dignity in old age and in situations of work disability and disability. Using the hypothetical-deductive method and bibliographic and documentary analysis with the consolidated experience of Uruguay’s National Integrated Care System (Law No. 19,353/2015), the study concludes by confirming the hypothesis, showing that, although Uruguay has a mature institutional framework focused on dependency, Brazilian legislation presents a superior and avant-garde theoretical alignment with Advisory Opinion OC-31/25 in terms of intersectionality and universality, although its effective implementation remains conditional on future government regulation.