The response to COVID-19 in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico: challenges to national coordination of health policies.

The article analyzes the fight against COVID-19 in three Latin American countries: Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico. A multiple case study was carried out in a comparative perspective, based on a bibliographic review, documentary analysis, and secondary data, considering characteristics of the countries and the health system, evolution of COVID-19, national governance, containment and mitigation measures, health systems response, constraints, positive aspects and limits of responses. The three countries had distinct health systems but were marked by insufficient funding and inequalities when hit by the pandemic and recorded high-COVID-19 mortality.

Democracy, citizenship and health in Brazil: challenges to strengthening the Unified Health System (SUS).

Relations among democracy, citizenship and health have shaped the Unified Health System (SUS) over the past four decades. Until 2016, democracy was strengthened and social rights extended, despite structural difficulties, conflicts between projects, and unevenly over time. The SUS has allowed advances in access and improvements to health conditions.

[COVID-19 in Latin America: inequalities and response capacity of health systems to health emergenciesCOVID-19 en América Latina: desigualdades y capacidad de respuesta de los sistemas de salud ante emergencias de salud].

Objective: To identify correlations between COVID-19, demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, and the capacity of Latin American health systems to respond to health emergencies.

Method: An ecological study was performed using secondary data from 20 Latin American countries regarding incidence, mortality, testing and vaccination coverage for covid-19 from 2020 to 2021 as well as demographic and socioeconomic indicators. The preparedness of countries to respond to health emergencies was explored based on the 2019 State Party Self-Assessment Annual Report on the implementation of the International Health Regulations (IHR).

The National Council for Food and Nutrition Security: dynamics and agenda (2006-2016).

Food insecurity is a worldwide public health problem. In Brazil, the configuration of a Food and Nutrition Security (FNS) policy has gained prominence in the government agenda since 1980. We highlight the creation of the National Council for Food and Nutrition Security (CONSEA) aiming at articulation between sectors and social participation.

Public-private relations in Chile's health system: regulation, funding and service delivery.

This article analyzes the configuration of public-private relations in Chile's health system between 2000 and 2018, focusing on organization and regulation, funding and service delivery. The following data collection methods were employed: literature review, content analysis of official documents and secondary data, and semi-structured interviews. With regard to organization and regulation, the findings show a lack of institutional mechanisms to mitigate risk selection and that access to private services is intimately linked to ability to pay.

Governance and state capacities against COVID-19 in Germany and Spain: national responses and health systems from a comparative perspective.

This study aimed to analyze comparatively strategies and political actions adopted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany and Spain in 2020. Based on historical institutionalism, we focused on the institutionality of government action in five work dimensions. The results showed different state capacities in coordination, implementation, and effectiveness of strategies.

Production of knowledge on policy, planning, and management in Journal Ciência & Saúde Coletiva.

The area of Policy, Planning and Health Management (PPG) express the intersection between research, intervention and political action. The article analyzes the dynamics of knowledge production about PPG in the Journal Ciência & Saúde Coletiva (C&SC) from 1996 to 2019. The study articulates a bibliometric and qualitative approach to explore the profile of articles in three dimensions: thematic, methodological and authorship/institutional partnerships.

Health policies in Chile (2000-2018): trajectory and conditioning factors.

In the 1980s, during the military dictatorship, Chile was a forerunner in Latin America in radical health system reform, expanding the private sector's participation in health insurance and services provision and influencing reforms in other countries of the region. The article analyzes health policies in Chile from 2000 to 2018, in the context of four democratic government administrations, considering continuities and changes in the policies' development and their conditioning factors. The analytical reference drew on contributions from historical institutionalism.

Political struggles for a universal health system in Brazil: successes and limits in the reduction of inequalities.

Background: Brazil is a populous high/middle-income country, characterized by deep economic and social inequalities. Like most other Latin American nations, Brazil constructed a health system that included, on the one hand, public health programs and, on the other, social insurance healthcare for those working in the formal sector. This study analyzes the political struggles surrounding the implementation of a universal health system from the mid-1980s to the present, and their effects on selected health indicators, focusing on the relevant international and national contexts, political agendas, government orientations and actors.

The current challenges of the fight for a universal right to health in Brazil.

Brazil has changed a lot since the enactment of the 1988 Federal Constitution. Although substantial advances have occurred in the health sector, old problems persist and new ones arise. The main goal of ensuring the universal right to health has not been achieved.

Government coordination of the Tobacco Control Policy in Brazil.

This research aimed to analyze the National Committee for the Implementation of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (CONICQ). The study covered the period from 2003 to 2015 and built on the referential analysis of public policies, considering structure and political process and Committee's agenda and performing capacity. Methodological strategies were documentary analysis, including Committee's minutes of meetings, direct observation of events and interviews with key stakeholders.

[Governance, intersectoriality and social participation in public policy: the National Council on the Rights of the Elderly].

Aging is a complex phenomenon that requires different types of public policies. In 2002, the National Council for the Rights of the Elderly (CNDI) was created as a governance structure to enhance the guarantee of rights through coordination between sectors of government and civil society. The article seeks to analyze the CNDI based on the description of the institutional configuration and characterization of its operation in the proposal of strategies for implementing and monitoring the main policies for the elderly.

[Decentralization and regionalization of health policy: a historical-comparative approach between Brazil and Spain].

This article discusses the processes of de centralization and regionalization of health policy in Brazil and Spain between 1980 and 2015. The study was developed with contributions of the historical institutionalism and of the historical com parative method, by means of three dimensions of analysis: State context; trajectory and institution ality of the decentralization and regionalization of health; and constraints. The study showed that,in both countries, the more general context of re-democratization and decentralization of the State conditioned the reforms of health systems and their political-administrative organization.

Health Policies in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico: different paths, many challenges.

Over recent decades, several Latin American health systems have undergone reforms. This paper analyzes health policies in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico from 1990 to 2014. It explores the reform strategies, explanatory factors and effects on the configuration of each health system.

Tobacco Control Policies in Brazil: a 30-year assessment.

The article presents a review of Brazilian tobacco control policies from 1986 to 2016, based on contributions from political economics and analyses of public policies. The institutionalization of tobacco control in the country was marked by more general changes in health policies and by specific events related to the theme. Brazil's international leadership role, a robust National Tobacco Control Policy, the role of civil society and the media all contributed to the success of tobacco control in this country.

Universal health system and universal health coverage: assumptions and strategies.

In recent years the international debate about universality in health has been marked by a polarization between ideas based on a universal system, and notions proposing universal health coverage. The concept of universal coverage has been disseminated by international organizations and has been incorporated into health system reforms in several developing countries, including some in Latin America. This article explores the assumptions and strategies related to the proposal of universal health coverage.

[History of Brazil's tobacco control policy from 1986 to 2016].

This study analyzes Brazil's tobacco control policy from 1986 to 2016, seeking to describe the policy's history and discuss its achievements, limits, and challenges. The study adopted a political economics approach and contributions from public policy analysis. Data were based on a search of the literature, documents, and secondary sources and semi-structured interviews with stakeholders involved in the policy.

Health policies in Brazil in times of contradiction: paths and pitfalls in the construction of a universal system.

This article analyzes the trajectory of national health policy in Brazil from 1990 to 2016 and explores the policy's contradictions and conditioning factors during the same period. Continuities and changes were seen in the policy's context, process, and content in five distinct moments. The analysis of the policy's conditioning factors showed that the Constitutional framework, institutional arrangements, and action by health sector stakeholders were central to the expansion of public programs and services, providing the material foundations and expanding the basis of support for the Brazilian Unified National Health System at the health sector level.