Others have kind of mentioned a lot of things I might anyway, and it's hard to summarize what I think is necessary. But to summarize, I think there needs to be a deregulation of licensing or practice laws to allow other types of providers to do more, of the sort they are perfectly capable of doing (and that studies show they can do) — pharmacists, psychologists, and optometrists are just some examples — and I think there needs to be more flexibility and diversity in terms of provider types and degree paths. My guess is there are many types of providers we can't even envision right now because there's such a rigid schema about what healthcare professionals should look like. I also think, for example, there are probably a lot of cases where someone could go from a PA -> MD degree without returning to do a second degree; I might be wrong about that but these are the types of things that should be encouraged at least as experiments.
I also generally think there's a lot of choice that could be encouraged in terms of drug access. I generally think people should be able to buy medications and drugs without a prescription, or at least under the monitoring of a pharmacist or something, or at least in most cases. I can think of medications that there have literally been papers written saying that they are safe to give without a prescription decades ago and they still require a prescription; there's also medications that people take for years safely, and it seems kinda absurd to require them to get a prescription for them. My thoughts about the FDA itself are complex and could probably an essay in itself.
I'm very in favor of public healthcare, and public healthcare institutions but I also feel a lot should be deregulated or reregulated toward greater openness, choice, and competition. There's probably a lot of areas where there should be more regulation too I suppose — I think antitrust principles should be applied to insurance and hospital consolidation more often.
I also generally think there's a lot of choice that could be encouraged in terms of drug access. I generally think people should be able to buy medications and drugs without a prescription, or at least under the monitoring of a pharmacist or something, or at least in most cases. I can think of medications that there have literally been papers written saying that they are safe to give without a prescription decades ago and they still require a prescription; there's also medications that people take for years safely, and it seems kinda absurd to require them to get a prescription for them. My thoughts about the FDA itself are complex and could probably an essay in itself.
I'm very in favor of public healthcare, and public healthcare institutions but I also feel a lot should be deregulated or reregulated toward greater openness, choice, and competition. There's probably a lot of areas where there should be more regulation too I suppose — I think antitrust principles should be applied to insurance and hospital consolidation more often.