The “Medical Act” and jurisdictional disputes between health professionals

Abstract

The article analyzed the implications of the Medical Act in ordering the relations between health professions and in aspects related to the control of the field of medical knowledge, professional practice, and the health labor market. With qualitative research, the Medical Act was investigated by documentary analysis of material from 18 editions of the Jornal Medicina do CFM (223 editions consulted between 1998 and 2018). Particular interests were evidenced in the process of negotiation and enforcement of the Medical Act Law, recognized as an instrument of professional control resulting from the changes that occurred in the health professions system and in the health labor market. Professional regulation aimed at the exclusive exercise of professional acts considered to be medical acts appears as an advantage for the medical corporation. In seeking the exclusivity of medical practice in multiple areas, the Medical Act ends up intensifying conflicts with health professions that share their professional acts. The article concludes that the Medical Act could also be understood as the result of a movement for the valorization of the liberal bases of action, aiming at defending individual practice, free choice, the payment of services by the client, and the direct provision of services.