[Health care under the military government (1964-1985) and its legacy for the SUS: the public-private hybrid Unified Health System].

Abstract

This article analyzes the health care policy developed during the military government in Brazil (1964-1985), with a core focus on the relationship between the public and private sectors in the provision of health services, in the different modalities in which this occurred, and its repercussions. The objective, from an institutionalist and historical perspective, which considers the mechanisms by means of which prior policies affect the subsequent decision-making process and impose limits on the possibilities for change, is to identify the effects of this policy on the configuration of health policy reform, implemented in the democratization process, which led to the creation of a universal and comprehensive health system. Among these, the political effects on the configuration of the health area stand out; cognitive effects related to the perception of health policy, and effects on the government's capacity to provide and regulate services. The result was the continuation of a duality in the health system, resulting in the coexistence of a vigorous private sector with an allegedly universal public system which posed/poses difficulties for the SUS, but did not prevent its implementation and institutionalization. The article is taken from a previously published book.