Changes in Primary Health Care Policy: consensus and disputes in deliberative spaces of the SUS

ABSTRACT

The National Primary Care Policy (PNAB), when established in 2006, corroborated the direction of the care model in accordance with the universalization of the Brazilian health system. However, recent changes in its organization and funding demonstrate inflections. The aim of the study is to analyze decision-making processes related to the PNAB, in different deliberation spaces of the SUS, which influenced changes in such policy, in the period between 2016 and 2020. This is an exploratory and retrospective case study, which adopted process tracing. Meeting minutes of the National Health Council (CNS) and Tripartite Inter-managers Commission (CIT) from 2016 to 2020 were analyzed. Recordings of Ordinary CIT Meetings, between 2019 and 2020, were also sources of information. Changes in the policy took place under the low dialogue and disapproval of the national instance of participation and social control of the SUS. The CNS acted as a space for denunciation and resistance to changes, but with a low capacity to influence political decisions. In turn, the intergovernmental space of the SUS revealed cooperation between representatives of subnational managers, with few tensions, with regard to the change agenda proposed by the Union.

KEYWORDS
Health policy; Primary Health Care; Healthcare financing; Social participation; Decision making