| Resumen: |
Since the return to democracy in the 1980s, Brazil has embraced a development model that promotes inclusive growth through substantial investments in social programs aimed at alleviating poverty and improving the quality of life of poor families. This was achieved through targeted social programs, such as the conditional cash transfer program, Bolsa Família, and through broad reforms such as the overhauling of the health system and the creation of a tax-financed national health system, the Unified Health System (Sistema Único de Saúde, SUS). The SUS embodies the principles laid out in the 1988 constitution that establishes universal and egalitarian access to health care as a right of the citizen and an obligation of the state.
The SUS unified the existing disparate contributory and public subsystems (Social Security, the Ministry of Health, states and municipalities) into one coordinated national system to which the entire population is entitled. It also invested heavily in primary care, fundamentally changing the existing hospital-based curative care medical model. The Primary Care Strategy, principally through its flagship program—the Family Health Strategy (FHS), established multidisciplinary teams of health professionals who are responsible for a defined territory and population with whom they establish contact and share responsibility for health care. The family health teams are the point of entry into the health system, including through home visits, and are responsible for health promotion activities, as well as sectoral and intersectoral actions to control risk factors in the community. |
