De porta em porta. Os cuidados de saúde nas associações de socorro mútuo: o caso da ASMECL

Abstract

From the end of the 18th century and the early 20th century, mutual associations asserted themselves as the main providers of health care to the most disadvantaged classes. However, only a small number created specific infrastructures to provide this care. Based on the analysis of the evolution of the Mutual Aid Association of Employees in Commerce of Lisbon (ASMECL), the first mutual association to create medical infrastructures in Portugal, we argue that the almost non-existence of mutualist medical infrastructures was due to the incapacity of most of the mutualist structures to adapt to the transformations that took place in the health care field in the early twentieth century.