Moraes asks for a review and postpones decision on readjusting old health plans for the elderly

Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), requested a review this Wednesday and interrupted the trial that discusses whether the rule of the Statute of the Elderly that prohibits readjusting health plans based on the age of users also applies to contracts concluded before the law came into force, at the end of 2003.

The STF is jointly analyzing two cases on the same topic. Moraes promised that he will return them soon. Before the view, minister Flávio Dino voted to prohibit adjustments also for old contracts, while Nunes Marques argued that this prohibition only applies after the Statute of the Elderly.

The Elderly Statute determines that “discrimination against elderly people in health plans by charging different amounts based on age is prohibited”. The debate, however, is whether this prediction also applies to contracts prior to the law’s entry into force on December 30, 2003.

One of the cases being analyzed by the STF is an extraordinary appeal (RE), with general repercussions. This means that the process began around a specific situation, but that a thesis will be defined to be applied in all similar situations.

In this trial, all votes have already been counted, with a score of seven votes to two to prevent readjustments also in plans contracted before the Statute, in cases where the person turned 60 years old after the law.

The trial was not concluded, however, precisely to wait for the analysis of the other case, also on the same topic. It is a declaratory action of constitutionality (ADC). In this case, however, there were three votes to the contrary, allowing adjustments to old contracts.

Although the theme is the same, the score for the two actions must be different because they include the votes of retired ministers, which continue to be valid.

The RE, for example, was reported by minister Rosa Weber, who voted to prevent the readjustment of old plans. She was accompanied by two retired ministers, Celso de Mello and Ricardo Lewandowski, and four current members of the STF: Alexandre de Moraes, Cármen Lúcia, Edson Fachin and Gilmar Mendes. Marco Aurélio Mello, who has also left the Court, was against it, and was accompanied by Dias Toffoli.

The thesis proposed by Rosa was that the prohibition of the adjustment also occurs “when entry into a different age group is subsequent to the validity of the so-called Elderly Statute (2004), even if these are previously signed health plan contracts”.

The ADC is reported by Toffoli, who was accompanied by two ministers who did not vote in the other trial: André Mendonça and Cristiano Zanin. When a retired minister has already presented his position, his successor does not vote. Mendonça takes Marco Aurélio’s place, while Zanin succeeded Lewandowski.

Gilmar Mendes followed Toffoli, but with the exception that the prohibition applies to contracts signed before the statute, but renewed afterwards.