Primary Health Care for Universal Health Coverage? Contributions for a Critical Anthropological Agenda

Abstract

Forty years after the Alma-Ata declaration, the WHO has reaffirmed its commitment to Primary Health Care (PHC). We argue that this renewed interest in PHC is being coopted by the neoliberal agenda on health via its application to Universal Health Coverage (UHC) reforms as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We offer an overview of classic anthropological studies on PHC, and more recent ones on UHC, as a way to propose some research foci and a set of questions for emerging critical anthropological research. Lastly, we suggest the careful reading of five recently published articles in Medical Anthropology.

Keywords: Agenda investigativa; Cobertura Universal en Salud; Health care reform; Universal Health Coverage; atención primaria en salud; neoliberalism; primary health care; reforma a la salud; research agenda.