Revisiting Health Rights Litigation and Access to Medications in Costa Rica: Preliminary Evidence from the Cochrane Collaboration Reform.

In response to the incremental creation of an expansive constitutional right to health in Costa Rica, the country's rights-friendly constitutional chamber of the Supreme Court (known as the Sala IV) unleashed a flood of litigation for medications, treatments, and other health care issues. This development was met by widespread criticism from within the health sector, which complained that the court's jurisprudence routinely elevated the right to health above financial considerations, thus posing a threat to the financial well-being of the state-run health care system. Further, a 2014 study by Ole Frithjof Norheim and Bruce Wilson examining successful health rights litigation revealed that more than 70% of favorable rulings were for low-priority medications, suggesting a lack of fairness in access to medications in Costa Rica.