Family health: limits and possibilities for an integral primary care approach to health care in Brazil.

The article analyzes the implementation of the Family Health Strategy (FH) and discusses its potential to guide the organization of the Unified Health System in Brazil, based on the integration of FH to the health care network and intersectorial action, crucial aspects of a comprehensive primary health care. Four case studies were carried out in cities with high FH coverage (Aracaju, Belo Horizonte, Florianópolis e Vitória), using as sources: semi-structured interviews with managers and surveys with health care professionals and registered families. The integration analysis highlighted the position of FH Strategy in the health services network, the integration mechanisms and the availability of information for continuity of care.

[Unconditional to conditional rights: counterparts in Brazil's Family Allowance Program].

This paper analyzes the concepts and challenges of the counterpart contributions demanded by Brazil's Family Allowance Program, which requires mandatory school attendance for children and adolescents, and healthcare for children, pregnant women and breast-feeding mothers. These issues are prompting much discussion in Brazil and elsewhere in the world. This study charts theoretical aspects that underpin arguments for and against conditional cash transfer programs, through a review and systematization of the literature and a study of the related legislation.

[Social inequalities, healthcare and well-being: opportunities and obstacles on the horizon of transversal public policies].

The development of a distributive justice model that is responsive to new claims and demands in the social policy field requires in-depth examinations and critiques of the ways in which public policies are drawn up and implemented. Reconstituting and analyzing different institutional dynamics, decision contexts and program performances emerge as tasks that are crucial to the quest for alternatives ways of strengthening integration and empowerment experiences. The purpose of this article is to present these issues and help affirm commitments to transversal and convergent public actions combating poverty, social exclusion and unequal healthcare.

[The Family Health Program and the construction of a new model for primary care in Brazil].

As part of the implementation of the country's Unified Health System (Sistema Unico de Saúde), the Brazilian Government created, in the second half of the 1990s, the Family Health Program (FHP) (Programa de Saúde da Família), based on community-oriented, multidisciplinary care serving people organized into small groups. For this study, we evaluated the implementation of the FHP, based on three criteria: (1) the construction of the program as an entry point for most health needs and for access to specialized care, (2) the program's linkages with a comprehensive network of health services, and (3) the incorporation of new care practices into the health system. We found that the implementation of the FHP was far from uniform.

Local implementation of the Family Health Program in Brazil.

This article discusses the implementation of the Family Health Program in the municipalities of Camaragibe, Aracaju, São Gonçalo, and the Federal District of Brazil, aiming to identify possible interfaces between the program's shaping and different incentives structures, the local health system's case-resolving capacity, experiences with social participation, and accountability mechanisms. The article shows that aspects related to the constitution of local health systems in terms of the quantitative and qualitative supply of services, technical and management training within the Municipal Health Department, investment in other levels of care, and local political traditions are crucial variables for understanding the diversity of experiences in the implementation of the Family Health Program.

[Equity and health policy: some reflections on the Family Health Program in Brazil].

This article focuses on key elements contributing to the public social policy debate, specifically from the perspective of promoting distributive justice. The reference is the Family Health Program in Brazil and its relation to recent changes in national health policy and the literature on the issues of equity and social justice. This concern is due to recent changes in social interventions by the Brazilian state, where targeting assumes a central place in the reform process.