Discutem-se afinidades eletivas entre três fenômenos na área da saúde: a atenção primária à saúde (APS), a abordagem psicossocial no cuidado à Saúde Mental e uso crescente das práticas integrativas e complementares (PIC). Apesar de suas diferenças, eles convergem como críticas e respostas a problemas do modelo médico hegemônico. Embora regulamentados e em implantação no Sistema Único de Saúde (as PIC de forma quase incipiente), tais fenômenos portam um caráter contra-hegemônico. Suas concepções de objeto, de meios e de fins do trabalho ou cuidado apresentam relevantes afinidades, como: centramento nos sujeitos em seus contextos sociais/familiares; abordagens ampliadas e holísticas; valorização de saberes/práticas não-biomédicos e de múltiplas formas, vivências e técnicas de cuidado; estímulo à auto-cura, participação ativa e empoderamento dos usuários; abordagem familiar e comunitária. Na organização das práticas e no relacionamento com a clientela há afinidades quanto à adequação sócio-cultural; parceria, dialogicidade e democratização das relações; trabalho territorial e construção/exploração de vínculos terapêuticos. Assinalam-se também convergências quanto aos efeitos terapêuticos e ético-políticos e discute-se o caráter relativamente desmedicalizante desses fenômenos, mais acentuado na atenção psicossocial e na procura pelas PIC. Tais afinidades significam sinergia entre os três fenômenos, ora relativamente independentes e isolados entre si. O reconhecimento e exploração dessas afinidades pela Saúde Coletiva, pelos movimentos sociais, bem como de profissionais e gestores do SUS, podem contribuir para qualificar a APS e a atenção em saúde mental e sua abertura para as PIC, ampliando as possibilidades de cuidado e fortalecendo os três fenômenos tematizados.

This article presents interpretative hypothesis about the absence of institutional rules for healthcare access to Primary Health Care (PHC) in Brazil, specifically in Family Health Strategy (FHS). Access now is characterized by deviation and/or undervaluation in its operational aspect of providing rapid access to longitudinal clinical care. The hypothesis for this problem has been contextualised along two main axes: SUS institutional norms and the internal debate within the Collective Health field. In the first axis we discuss the North-American influence on Brazilian public health and the understanding of PHC as a “basic package” of healthcare services; the priority given to health promotion in the institutional health policies, as well as the Embracement (the only policy to stimulate the easy access in PHC/FHS) and the sizing of users/FHS team ratio. All that gives support for expanding and resizing the users/FHS ratio. The second axis, discuss Brazil’s relative isolation from the experience of developed countries with strong PHC; the critique of the relationship between biomedicine and capitalism; the emphasis on health promotion and disease prevention as the priority working objectives in PHC/FHS; the distance kept by the academic environment of the reality of FHS services; Brazilian social stratification, which fosters the use of subsidized private health systems by elites and middle classes. Finally, we argue that easy access to longitudinal healthcare should be regarded as fundamental for achieving the four dimensions which must converge into the PHC/FHS action: the ethical-political, anthropological and epidemiological dimensions and the social determinants on health and disease.

Quaternary prevention consists in the identification of persons at risk of excessive medicalization and their protection against new unnecessary interventions, avoiding iatrogenic damages. Here, we argue about the importance of quaternary prevention in specific primary and secondary prevention. The recent great development of preventive medicine, biomedicalization of risks and their treatment as if they were diseases, and the powerful influence of the commercial interests of pharmaceutical industries on the production of medical-sanitary knowledge alter classifications, create diseases and pre-diseases, lower cutoff points, and erase the distinction between prevention and healing. This situation converts larger amounts of asymptomatic persons into sick individuals and diverts clinical attention and resources from sick persons to the healthy, from older adults to young persons, and from the poor to the rich. Quaternary prevention facilitates and induces the development and systematization of operational knowledge and guidelines to contain hypermedicalization and the damages of preventive actions in professional care, especially in primary health care.

La medicalización social transforma la cultura, disminuye el manejo autónomo de parte de los problemas de salud y genera excesiva demanda en el Sistema Único de Salud. Una alternativa a la medicalización social en el ámbito de la atención a la salud es la pluralización terapéutica de las instituciones de salud, es decir, la valorización y el ofrecimiento de prácticas y medicinas alternativas y complementarias. El objetivo del trabajo fue analizar potencialidades y dificultades de las prácticas y medicinas alternativas y complementarias a partir de experiencias clínico-institucionales y de la literatura especializada. Se concluye que tal estrategia tiene un potencial limitado "desmedicalizante" y debe ser asumida por el Sistema Único de Salud. Se resalta además que deben ser observadas la hegemonía político-epistemológica de la Biociencia y la disputa mercadológica actual en el campo de la salud, cuya tendencia es transformar cualquier saber/práctica estructurada del proceso salud-enfermedad en mercadurías o procedimientos para consumo, reforzando la heteronomía y la medicalización.

In the light of the comparative analysis of health systems, we discuss three strategic phenomena for the SUS universalization, as follows: a) health tax expenditures; b) State funding of private plans for public servants; and c) trade union's demand for private health plans. Among the ideal types of health systems, SUS is universal in law, but hybrid in practice: Beveridgian in primary health care (PHC) and mixed in specialized/hospital care; without really being universal (public spending is only 43% of total health expenditure). There is a massive state subsidy to the private sector, through health tax expenditures (30% of the federal health budget) and financing of private plans for public servants, which generates incoherence, segmentation of the health system and inequities. Despite the general support to the SUS, the union movements have been using private health plans in collective recruitment (76% of them), reinforcing the private sector. Reducing health tax expenditures - including state funding of servants' private plans - would significantly increase the SUS budget and facilitate articulation between health workers and trade unionists, bringing the high strength of unions closer to the long struggle for the universality of the SUS and PHC.

This article contends that the distinction between clinical care (illness) and prevention of future disease is essential to the practice of quaternary prevention. The authors argue that the ongoing entanglement of clinical care and prevention transforms healthy into "sick" people through changes in disease classification criteria and/or cut-off points for defining high-risk states. This diverts health care resources away from those in need of care and increases the risk of iatrogenic harm in healthy people. The distinction in focus is based on: (a) management of uncertainty (more flexible when caring for ill persons); (b) guarantee of benefit (required only in prevention); (c) harm tolerance (nil or minimal in prevention). This implies attitudinal differences in the decision-making process: greater skepticism, scientism and resistance towards preventive action. These should be based on high-quality scientific evidence of end-outcomes that displays a net positive harm/benefit ratio.

A medicalização social transforma a cultura, diminui o manejo autônomo de parte dos problemas de saúde e gera excessiva demanda ao Sistema Único de Saúde. Uma alternativa à medicalização social no âmbito da atenção à saúde é a pluralização terapêutica das instituições de saúde, ou seja, a valorização e o oferecimento de práticas e medicinas alternativas e complementares. O objetivo do artigo foi analisar potencialidades e dificuldades de práticas e medicinas alternativas e complementares a partir de experiências clínico-institucionais e da literatura especializada. Conclui-se que tal estratégia tem um limitado potencial "desmedicalizante" e deve ser assumida pelo Sistema Único de Saúde. Ressalta-se ainda que devem ser observadas a hegemonia político-epistemológica da Biociência e a disputa mercadológica atual no campo da saúde, cuja tendência é transformar qualquer saber/prática estruturado do processo saúde-doença em mercadorias ou procedimentos a serem consumidos, reforçando a heteronomia e a medicalização.

ABSTRACT Quaternary prevention consists in the identification of persons at risk of excessive medicalization and their protection against new unnecessary interventions, avoiding iatrogenic damages. Here, we argue about the importance of quaternary prevention in specific primary and secondary prevention. The recent great development of preventive medicine, biomedicalization of risks and their treatment as if they were diseases, and the powerful influence of the commercial interests of pharmaceutical industries on the production of medical-sanitary knowledge alter classifications, create diseases and pre-diseases, lower cutoff points, and erase the distinction between prevention and healing. This situation converts larger amounts of asymptomatic persons into sick individuals and diverts clinical attention and resources from sick persons to the healthy, from older adults to young persons, and from the poor to the rich. Quaternary prevention facilitates and induces the development and systematization of operational knowledge and guidelines to contain hypermedicalization and the damages of preventive actions in professional care, especially in primary health care.