The Unified Health System in a historical series of indicators: a national perspective for action

ABSTRACT This article examines the historical series of a set of indicators, from 2002 to 2014, related to the Unified Health System of Brazil, based on the methodology of the Proposal for Evaluation of Performance of the Health System. The results show that there has been a significant improvement in the socioeconomic dimension indicators and in the health conditions dimension. The improvement of the indicators of health conditions may be related to the increase of financial support; increase of human resources; increase of access to medical appointments and services of high complexity; and a greater availability of hours of health professional to the resident population.