The article reviews labor regulation of family doctors in Brazil and other countries, aiming to discuss recent measures of the Ministry of Health that regulated the workload of physicians in the Family Health Care Strategy. The approach is taken from literature and Brazilian legislation on the subject, in a comparative perspective with experiences from other countries. The research revealed the existence of a pattern of poor state regulation of both medical labor and training in Brazil, especially with regard to family medicine, as compared with international experiences. This resulted in low supply of professionals for the Family Health Care Strategy and contributed to the recent flexibilization of workload of physicians and the creation of the Mais Médicos Program by the Ministry of Health. The option for flexibilization in place of more regulation on the profession can affect the integration of family health teams, which is a central element of the strategy and seemingly contradicts the emphasis on the priority of their role as repeatedly stated by the ministry.
Brazilian Family Health Strategy; Family Health Medicine; health manpower; health care public policies
