This article discusses public policies for the health sector as part of the reform of the Brazilian State that was carried out during the nineties. The decentralizing of the public health system (Sistema Único de Saúde -- SUS) and the search for financing alternatives in the face of economic crisis are the main points on the agenda of that period, also characterized by the political force that the Ministry of Health acquired from 1998 on, with Jose Serra at its head.
Ministry of Health; Sistema Único de Saúde; decentralization; financing; regulation; Fernando Henrique Cardoso administration; José Serra
