The objective was to identify the discursive transformations and understand intentions and ideological influences on the improvement of Brazilian Public Health, contained in the inaugural speeches of former Health Ministers (1995-2016). Historical and documentary research, with a qualitative approach. The hermeneutic-dialectic method was used as a theoretical-methodological framework. The speeches had structural similarities related to the symbolic ceremonial rite in which they were delivered, classified into: understood concepts; identified challenges and defined proposals. No major ideological ruptures on health were identified between government platforms (PT and PSDB), only different approaches in a period of consolidation and improvement of the SUS, with maintenance of a similar operational management line, gradual distancing from the project of Brazilian Health Reform and subordination to the economic logic of health production.