The formulation of social assistance law and the legitimation of the social assistance public policy.

This paper analyzes the decision-making process involving the formulation of Bill 3077/20081 by the Ministry of Social Development and Fight against Hunger, and its subsequent approval as Law 12.435/2011, which institutionalized the Unified Social Assistance System (SUAS). The methodology was based on bibliographic research, analysis of the minutes of the National Social Assistance Council from 2008 to 2011, and public documents from the Ministry and interviews with key stakeholders who worked at the Ministry between 2008 and 2011.

The social issue in the BRICS Project.

BRICS, the acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, is the first multilateral group created and run by non-western developed countries. The group aims to influence world geopolitics and market based on the right of developing and emerging countries to participate equitably in development. The social issue lies at the core of the group's justifications to achieve its goals.

Continuous Cash Benefit (BCP) for disabled individuals: access barriers and intersectoral gaps.

The 1988 Constitution approved the Continuous Cash Benefit (BCP) directed to elders and disabled persons with a household per capita income of 25% of the minimum wage, and around 4 million people received this benefit in 2015. The design of BPC for disabled persons involves organizations of social security, social welfare and health. This paper discusses how some intersectoral coordination mechanisms gaps between these areas produce access barriers to potential beneficiaries.

Dilemmas of the institutionalization of social policies in twenty years of the Brazilian Constitution of 1988.

The objective is to discuss and analyze some elements of the process of institutionalization of social policies in Brazil after the Constitution of 1988, especially those of social welfare (social security, health and social assistance). It is assumed that this process present hybrids that compromise the results prescribed by the Constitution. From one hand, there are important advances in political and organizational apparatus and in the concept of the social question (treated here through three elements: constitutionalization, scope and expansion).

[Procedures and perceptions of professionals and groups acting in the Brazilian health plan market].

This study analyzes the mechanisms used in Brazil by health plan and insurance operators, hospitals and physicians for organizing the access to health care services and their strategies towards cost reduction and decision-making. The study is based on the literature about regulation of the health services, with special focus on micro-management and managed care. From an intentional sample of health care organizations selected according to the number of beneficiaries, organizational modality and geographic criteria we selected probabilistic samples of doctors and hospital services.

[Health on the borders: access to and demands on the Brazilian National Health System by foreigners and non-resident Brazilians in cities along the border with MERCOSUR countries from the perspective of municipal health secretaries].

In the context of forming common markets, border areas require special attention, since they anticipate the effects of integration processes. Along borders, different political, monetary, security, and social systems coexist; the intensification of flows resulting from integration raises challenges for the health systems, requiring specific policies focused on guaranteeing the right to health. This article presents the results of a study on the conditions for access to (and demands for) health services in the MERCOSUR border cities.