Basic Care and Primary Health Care – Origins and conceptual differences

Abstract

There is a frequent discussion about the ideal terminology to indicate the first level of the health care system in Brazil. This discussion has special contours as the expression "Basic Care" is the official expression used by the Brazilian government's documents, although nowadays there is also a growing use of "Primary Health Care". This paper discusses the historical origins and conceptual differences on the expressions related to the Basic Care and Primary Health Care, assuming that the rationale and the historical knowledge may both help to clarify the debate and turn better understandable the proposals about this issue in Brazil. The authors conclude that these expressions (including “Primary Care”) may be used as synonyms in most cases, leading to no conceptual problems. However, sometimes the theoretical frameworks used in the texts vary from functionalism to more progressive approaches, particularly opposing the concepts of “Basic Care” and “Primary Health Care” to the “Primary Care”.