A covid-19 em regiões transfronteiriças: Consequências e impactos na institucionalidade dos sistemas locais de saúde e proteção social

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to present the methodological proposal of the study “Covid-19 in transborder regions: consequences and impacts on the institutionality of local healthcare and social protection systems”. This study aligns with and continues previous studies about social protection and healthcare in international border regions in Mercosur. Considering the current health and economic crisis and its consequences, the study focuses on the changes in the healthcare and social protection systems caused by the Covid-19 pandemic in a transborder region. Considering the objectives and differences among these sectors in terms of temporality, legal-administrative guarantees, public recognition, and institutional apparatus, the methodological strategies should favor the legal-formal identification of the apparatus for social protection and the concrete nature of the proposals for protection in terms of demands, services, access and accessibility. To verify this reproducibility of social policies and social structure the study evaluates normative-legal, organizational, operative-technical and physical indicators. The data to be analyzed will be obtained through document research and in-depth interviews with administrators and key informants. The empiric field of the study focused on the following criteria: the Triple Frontier region (Foz do Iguaçu, Ciudad del Este and Puerto Iguazu); medium (Aguarão/Rio Branco), and small municipalities, (Chuí/Chuy), with high porosity (the international border is a local street). The analysis of the information collected and systematized will initially be based on the theoretical references referred to in the problematization of the research project and later complemented to the degree in which they are needed to expand the study. It is hoped that the results will broaden understanding of the border region in terms of: knowledge of the border context between Brazil and the other Mercosur countries considering the impact of the current pandemic; and explanation of the differences of the measures taken by municipal administrators.