Brazil: The Health Care Model of the Military Modernizers and Technocrats

Abstract

Post-1964 political changes in Brazil had dire implications for the health sector as successive governments pursued economic and social policies which aggravated inequities and benefitted narrow elites. The “military modernizers” embraced a concept of development inimical to basic human needs, an economic model favoring growth over distribution and development over social welfare, and budget priorities favoring vocal, urban middle sectors at the expense of marginal populations. The result was deteriorating health and social conditions among the majority of the population that did not share in the benefits of the “economic miracle.”