Primary Health Care federal funding in the Unified Health System: old and new dilemmas

Abstract

This article aims to discuss the financing of Primary Care in the SUS, seeking to high-light the historical persistence of the fragility of this funding in terms of  the transfer model and a limited view of the concept  of Primary Care. The article is structured in three parts.  The first part discusses the historical trajectory  of the concept of Primary Care, from its initial  radicalism in the 1960s to the ‘downsizing’ brought  about by the new National Policy of Primary Health  Care (PNAB) of 2017. The second part addresses, in a  historical perspective, the federal funding of the SUS,  with emphasis on Primary Care and the assessment  criteria used. The third part deals with the financing of Primary Care, highlighting the resources of the  Ministry of Health for this level of care, focusing on  the new PNAB 2017 and, in particular, those  transferred through the Basic Attention Floor (PAB)  Variable.