Mais Médicos Program, improving SUS and democratizing health: an analytic balance of the program

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the Mais Médicos program (PMM) as a public health policy, describing some of its main characteristics and presenting data that allow an insight into its performance, bringing to light, among other aspects, the discrepancy between the results achieved and the opposition placed by the Conselho Federal de Medicina and the Conselho Regional de Medicina do Estado de São Paulo - medicine councils from the federation and from the state of São Paulo. Taking as reference the public policies cycle, the study focuses on the formulation and implementation stages. Using the analytical reference the concepts of bureaucratic insulation and window of opportunity, it is argued that the PMM has instigating aspects, either because of the insulated characteristics that mark its formulation process - which leads one to believe that the program has been maintained disregarding the external pressures of this initial phase -, or because of the favorable environment created by the days of June 2013, marked by popular manifestations that paved the way for the federal government to launch the clearly controversial initiative. These characteristics, associated with the significant social impact of the program, provide reflections that can contribute to the improvement of the knowledge on public policies processes.