PERSPECTIVES ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF HEALTHCARE IN BRAZIL

Abstract

From the reading of the works of Menicucci (2007) and Braga (2018), this article seeks to present a brief overview of the history of healthcare in Brazil since the mid-twentieth century - with special emphasis on the ambiguous relations observed between the public sectors and private in the period - in order to build a broad view on the processes that constituted Brazilian health as a whole and, more particularly, on the formation and implementation of the Unified Health System.

Although supported by distinct theoretical references (neo-institutionalist and gramscian views, respectively), if combined, both analyzes can bring important interpretations to the constitution of the current Brazilian health system, which the authors call dual or hybrid. In the case of the constitution of the Unified Health System, they show how the effects of "path dependence" and "feedback" of previous policies severely limited its implementation and, subsequently, how the formation and strengthening of corporate health entities have acted in a process of guaranteeing interests compared to those provided for in the 1988 Constitution.