Meanings of universality at the VIII National Health Conference: between the expanded concept of health and the expansion of access to health services

Abstract

This paper discusses the meanings of universality of health care present at the 8th National Health Conference. Based on the analysis of the main documents produced at the Conference and historical documents produced by the media and public health was inferred that, although the term ‘universality’ has been presented in a superficial way, the identification of thematic axes to verify the existence of a discursive dispute between a sense of universality as an extension of the right to health care versus as an expansion of the access to health services. However, it became clear that the sense of universality attached to the idea of an expanded concept of health care and to the conception of a comprehensive right to health care was predominant. This sense was mainly voiced by actors included in the academic scene, labor union representatives, social movement activists and health care reform movement. There were also identified as the main conditions of possibility for the emergence of this sense in the context: the process of redemocratization of the State in the late 1980s and the dissemination of proposals for a broad reform in the social sectors linked to the idea of guarantee of rights of citizenship.