OBJECTIVE: To characterize draft bills that aim at establishing State liability regarding health responsibility of healthcare managers. Methodology: Documental research. RESULTS: Health responsibility is defined in relation to its nature; legal sphere; essence of torts and penalties to which they are sanctioned and the process for its control. CONCLUSION: The institution of legal health responsibility creates a new paradigm when establishes, in addition to the objective liability of State, the tortious liability of the healthcare manager, and broaden the understanding of their traditional administrative civil liability: besides following healthcare rules set in laws, they have to incorporate the agreements between federative entities and health plan. The concept of 'health liability' is being shaped by the development and test of rules and mechanisms for cooperation and mutual control among the Union, states and municipalities, which are essential for the organization and management of a unified health system in a federate State with such characteristics as is Brazil's.
Health Responsibility; Health Liability; Brazilian National Health System; Health Law
