Normative moment of National Health Plans of Brazil and Canada in the light of Mario Testa

ABSTRACT The study aims to compare the main guidelines of the National Health Plans of Brazil and Canada in the light of Mario Testa. The normative moment of both documents were compared, considering the guidelines of the mentioned plans, analyzed according to the strategies of strategic thinking addressed by Mario Testa. The Atlas.ti program was used, exploring as analysis categories the keywords that identify each of the guidelines, as well as the three strategies: institutional, programmatic, and social. As main results, we find that the national health plans of Brazil and Canada converge on the keywords related to care actions directly, although the North American country plans a greater number of health surveillance activities compared to Brazil. Both countries guide the normative moment of planning through programmatic strategies, which are intersectoral in the Brazilian scenario. Differences point to intersectoral action in Brazil and the organization of care with well-defined hierarchical levels of health care. However, the predominance of programmatic strategies in Canada allows us to infer that this scenario enjoys the consolidation of decision-making processes, as well as ensuring the social rights of the population, resulting in specific institutional and social strategies.