This paper discusses health care models within the framework of the Brazilian State policies and their relation to contemporary Western medicine. The authors briefly analyze the importance of Enlightenment as a historical, social and cultural determinant of Western medicine as a hegemonic rationality in plal1l1ing and organizing such models. This is followed by a discussion of State technocracy's role in producing and reproducing such rationality. The final considerations underscore the inherent insufficiency of such models in solving the health problems of the population.
Health care institutions; health care models; health policies