This paper reflects upon the possibilities for the Family Health Strategy to establish a rupture with the clinical/biological/Flexnerian model that has been historically hegemonic in the configuration of health policies in Brazil. It analyzes the change in the health care model implied in the consolidation of the Brazilian Unified Health System (Sistema Único de Saúde - SUS), and focuses on its political-operational dimension, based on the categories proposed by Thomas Kuhn (1922-1996) concerning the development of science. It elects the Flexnerian model and SUS as exemplar paradigmatic expressions for the analysis of the process of transition and crisis that characterizes the current moment of reformulation of health models and practices. Finally, the article considers that the paradigmatic change in health care isn't limited to the Family Health Strategy, but encompasses the entire Health Care System. The knowledge of the health sector's social dimensions goes beyond the use of the categories studied.
Family health; science philosophy; health system; basic standards for health care