Saúde e cobertura jornalística dos governos Lula II e Temer na Folha de S. Paulo: políticas, gestão e ameaças ao SUS.

Abstract

The way in which the press approaches the health thematic and, particularly, the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS) in different governments have been the object of studies in recent years. From this perspective, the current investigation aims to identify actors and positions disseminated in the news coverage about health policies in the Lula and Temer governments, to verify whether it exposes threats to the right to health and to the SUS, and to analyze possible differences in the press coverage. For this purpose, a comparative case study was carried out based on published articles in the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper website, from January 1st to December 31st, 2007, and from May 12th, 2016 to April 30th, 2017. The theory of content analysis was used, with a thematic categorization that considered three large groups: Health problems/needs and social determinants of health; Health system; Health knowledge. The study adopted the concepts of agenda-setting and framing analysis, in addition to theoretical elements from Gramsci. It attempted to identify which SUS appears in the set of texts analyzed, according to the conceptions of “formal SUS”, “real SUS”, “SUS for the poor” and “democratic SUS”. The results obtained revealed that journalistic coverage about health remained with similar characteristics regarding several themes in the two governments, particularly in the category "Problems/health needs and social determinants of health", with the recurrent use of government sources exclusively, disregard of the social determinants of health and limited contextualization. There is a lack of awareness about how the system is funded and the consequences of insufficient resources. The coverage exposes SUS problems and the need for changes, and during the Temer government, it also questions the possibility of the system remaining existing as it is required in the Constitution. During this government, the private sector appears as the protagonist in proposing changes. The study discusses journalistic coverage, prevailing conceptions of the SUS, and its disputed projects. It states that, as it has defended the universality of the SUS and publicized criticisms of the defense of the interests of the private sector, the newspaper does not oppose the insufficient budget for the system and legitimizes initiatives that weaken it and contribute to its deconstruction, strengthening the “SUS for the poor ” and the “real SUS”. It points out that the change in understanding about the SUS, which is related to the dissemination of an undistorted image in journalistic coverage, can contribute to obtaining the political support necessary for its strengthening, expanding the social and political bases of the Brazilian Health Reform, with a new hegemony and redefinition of the State-Society relationship.