Atenção Primária à Saúde: elementos de continuidade e mudanças na saúde do Distrito Federal

Abstract

Primary Health Care (PHC) has a prominent position in the Brazilian governmental agenda. This study focuses on the health system in the Federal District and the initiatives to reorganize PHC, with the analysis of expenditure behavior in order to identify aspects of continuity and change during the period from 2005 to 2014. To achieve this purpose, documental research was carried out focusing on data from the Public Budget Information System. Drawing on historical neo-institutionalism, the results reveal contradiction between the discourse in defense of PHC and the maintenance of high level of expenditure with hospital services, thus confirming path dependence characteristic.

Primeira escolha para utilização de serviços de saúde pela população adulta do Distrito Federal, 2015: um inquérito de base populacional*

“…The evidence is testimony to a strong characteristic of Federal District Health Department (SES/DF) management: it continues to opt for longstanding policies, such as investing in hospitals, for example. 14,30 The average socioeconomic profile of the Federal District's population, namely high purchasing power and high education level, may explain, albeit partially, the fact that more than half of the people living in the Federal District said they had health insurance and seek private health services as their first choice. This result is higher than that found for Brazil as a whole, where only 20.6% of interviewees said they seek private Use of health services in the Federal District, 2015 health care, according to the National Health Survey.…”