This study analyses the incorporation of the decentralization principle by the municipal health systems of the Brazilian cities located in the Mercosur frontier areas. It defines how, and to what extent, the innovations due to the norms, rules and agreements that guide the decentralization have materialized in the local health systems, setting institutional standards that extend the right to health care to people other than Brazilians. It shows the small extent to which adaptations and arrangements have taken place in that direction, and it points to the challenges facing Social Service professionals.
Institutionalizing; Health policy; SUS; Health care systems; Local health care systems; Decentralization
