Meanings of universality at the VIII National Health Conference: between the expanded concept of health and the expansion of access to health services

This paper discusses the meanings of universality of health care present at the VIII National Health Conference (CNS). Based on the analysis of documents produced at the Conference and historical documents produced by the media and by Public Health institutions, it was inferred that, although the term universality has been used in a superficial way, the identification of thematic axes evidenced the existence of a discursive dispute between a sense of universality as an extension of the right to health care versus as an expansion of the access to health services. However, the meaning coupled to the expanded concept of health care and to the conception of a comprehensive right to health care was predominant. This meaning was mainly voiced by actors included in the academic scene, labor union representatives, social movement activists and health care reform movement. They were, also, identified as the main conditions of possibility for the emergence of this sense in the context of the VIII CNS: the process of redemocratization of the State in the late 1980s and the dissemination of proposals for a broad reform in the social sectors linked to the idea of guaranteeing citizenship rights.