[Reflections on health planning and on health reform in Brazil]

The authors considered carefully the brazilian social policies at the regimes of populism and militarism as well as at the democratic transition following the presupposition that the social planning in Latin America emerged as an instrument for social policies formulation. The authors also considered some tendencies of the Latin America Planning, emphasizing the Strategic Focus of the Health Program formulated by the Public Health School of Medellin; the Strategic Thought elaborated by Mario Testa; and the Strategic Situational Planning developed by Carlos Matus.