Political analysis of the National Health Council's performance in the construction of health policy in Brazil in the period 2014-2017

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze the role of the National Health Council in the core of the decision-making process of health policy in the period 2014-2017. The analysis was based on the political disputed projects in the health policy sphere and on the government projects of former Presidents Dilma Rousseff and Michel Temer. Due to the government’s project change, in addition to the social and parliamentary channels, the Council started to act through the judicial channel as well, moving from critical alignment to outright opposition until its neutralization, with the Council’s participation boycott in the health policy agenda discussions in the period 2016-2017. Although it did not have enough power to change the balance of forces surrounding the deconstruction of the Brazilian National Health System (SUS), the Council was part of a political bloc of resistance and confrontation in defense of the constitutional SUS.