The health policy in Lula's government

Abstract

The essay reflects on the health policy implemented in the eight years of President Lula's government, identifying a change of focus in the governmental agenda: from the exclusive emphasis on the gradual implementation of SUS (Brazil's National Health System) in the first term of office to life conditions and health determinants in the second one. It argues that the health policies of a government cannot be evaluated only by a sectorial perspective; it is necessary to examine the government's steps, orientations and products that have repercussions on the population's health and on the organization of the services system. The central proposition is that Lula's government was more innovative concerning interventions on health determinants than regarding the endogenous aspect of the health policy. In the sectorial scope, the progresses were incremental and qualitative, in the continuous and difficult process of implementing the principles of SUS in a context of depoliticization of the health issue and of a debate focusing only on financing, without including in the public agenda the structural problems of the health system.