The article aims to question the discourse of the national manager, who states that Primary Health Care has been a priority since the 1990s, and to review this policy from the perspective of its institutionality. Both the discourses concerning primary care published in official texts and those presented in scientific articles were analyzed, using the discourse analysis proposed by Foucault as the methodological framework. Primary Health Care appeared on the top of the government priority agenda as a strategy to restructure the health care model in the mid-1990s, with the Family Health Strategy as its flagship. Since Primary Health Care was put on the priority agenda, this policy has gradually incorporated institutionalization, setting resources into motion and including thousands of new players in the political dispute to organize the health system. Still, the stated priority for this policy goes against a backdrop of weakness in health care, specifically primary care, pointing to the need for an analysis of its directionality and construction feasibility.
primary health care; primary care; health policy; the priority agenda in health