Trends of participation in SUS: the emphasis on instrumentality and on interstate interface

Abstract

Given the conjuncture of fiscal austerity, regression of social rights and democratic public management, this manuscript aims to analyze the current trends of participation in the field of health. To this end, a study was carried out on documents issued by WHO/Paho/Brazil, the World Bank, and records from
the international seminar on the future of universal health systems, promoted by public managers (Conass). Literature research included studies published in health journals linked to academic-scientific entities that constituted the political and organizational bases of the brazilian sanitary reform movement, as well as other national journals that dedicated special issue to the 30 years of the Unified Health System (SUS). The study found in the international documents references to an instrumental, depoliticized participation of the State-society-market partnership type, when compared with the democratic bases of political articulation of the sanitary reform movement. The emphasis of the documents lies on management and participation, based on interstate interface, in which the state is just another subject in the delivery of health services.